


Silver and Gold

by shadowchan93



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Series
Genre: M/M, Thiefshipping, Thiefshipping Dirty Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-02-19 02:47:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13114374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowchan93/pseuds/shadowchan93
Summary: When Marik brought the Thief back from the Shadows, he thought everything would be easy from now on. But it wasn't.Post-canon thiefshipping fluff with some angst.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thiefshipping Story for the Dirty Santa that Sitabethel organized. Have fun :)

# Chapter 1

Bakura stared into the void, blackness engulfing him. It was so familiar and yet so foreign to him. 3000 years he had spent here. 3000 years in the darkness without a soul to talk to, expect for the demon he had so foolishly made a deal with. Yet it had never bothered him before. Perhaps it was the Dark Lord messing with his senses back then. Perhaps it was because his mind had been blinded by hatred and the demand for revenge. But now that the demon’s influence over him was gone, now that the millenniums items were destroyed and his village was put to rest, Bakura felt like the shadows were slowly driving him insane.

After he lost the final RPG to the pharaoh in the memory world, he thought his soul would go straight into Ammit’s belly. After what he’d done, he couldn’t expect to pass on to the fields. However, he had never even entered the _Duat_. Never had he been given the chance to stand in front of the Gods to say his negative confessions, to be judged and for his _ib_ to be weighted on Ma’at’s scales.

Instead he found himself back in the shadows that tormented his mind and tore at his very existence. He tried to tell himself it was just like before. But it was not. He didn’t know how he had been able to stand the darkness before. And when did that change?

Before, Bakura had always proudly proclaimed that he was the darkness. But after Marik had said he hated the dark, he wasn’t so sure if that’s what he wanted to be anymore. The moment he had let Marik’s light into his life, he had thought that maybe, just maybe, after 3000 painful years the sun was finally rising for him again after all.

But as fast as the sun rises, it also sets again and before Bakura knew it, he found himself back in the blackness. The Shadows were cruel masters of deception that looked deep into his heart and used his own thoughts against him. Sometimes they would take the shape of the pharaoh taunting him for his foolishness. Sometimes they would visit him in the shapes of the soldiers that took his family while others would imitate the screams of Kul Elna. Those were horrible, but by far not the worst visions. The worst was when they took the shapes of long lost family and friends making him believe that they were still with him. They’d offer him help and promised him that everything was going to be ok, just to crush his hopes again by morphing into shrieking monsters shortly afterwards.

He could remember one time where he heard the voice of his mother singing to him, but when he looked up, he just saw a faceless creature that exposed a row of sharp teeth once it had been spotted. He had been devastated as he realized he could not remember her face anymore.

Other times, he had visions of his old host haunting him. Ryou should hate him for ruining his life. Instead the hallucinations were friendly. Too friendly to be true and it put Bakura on edge because he knew he didn’t deserve forgiveness. After a while, Marik also started to appear, but Bakura had still been sane enough to see right through the illusion. As his sanity started to cease, he decided it’d be better to just shut down whenever he felt anything approaching him. He knew that once he fell into the Shadow’s trap, he’d break into a thousand pieces never to be mended back together again. His strategy seemed to work as the visions almost stopped completely and he was left alone in silence and in darkness with only his own thoughts to keep him company. Only the visions of Marik kept bothering him. However, they grew weaker and weaker each time.

He curled into a ball, wishing himself away from this godforsaken place and into a certain real blond’s company. It was ridiculous. The attachment he felt towards the other one was ridiculous. He couldn’t understand his own confusing feelings. After all they had just been partners in crime for a short time during Battle City and afterwards again shortly before the final RPG. But they had indeed built up some kind of friendship. A twisted friendship that relied on their craving for revenge and the death of a certain pharaoh, but a friendship nonetheless. The thought that at some point he’d have forgotten Marik, his only friend in 3000 years, just as he had forgotten his family’s faces and names brought a bitter taste to Bakura’s mouth.

In the end, the only thing left of the blond would be the golden trinket around his wrist. Bringing it up to his face, he stared at the golden metal that seemed to radiate with a warm glow, the only tiny speck of light in the shadows. He held his arm with the bracelet close to his chest and hugged himself, hoping to be able to protect his last piece of the sun from whatever lurked in the darkness.

 

 

\---

 

_Bakura stood by the window, gazing at the stars. He could remember a time where they were a lot brighter, back when he was still alive and the city not covered up in artificial neon lights. Scrunching his nose, he turned away from the window._

_“You’re going to leave tomorrow, aren’t you?”_

_“Yes.” Bakura glanced over his shoulder towards Marik. The Egyptian held a drink in his hand and was reclining on a white leather couch in the decadent hotel suite._

_Marik nodded as a sign that he had heard him. The blond knew better than to try and change Bakura’s mind. They argued every time he tried. In the end, he had come to accept that it was something the other one had to do. Something he would even die for. “But you’re coming back, right?”_

_Bakura tched and waved his hand dismissively. “I’m not intending to lose this time. The stage is set for the final game, everything is prepared and this time the Pharaoh won’t win.” He tried to sound confident, but his nervous pacing back and forth across the room told otherwise._

_The leather couch squelched as Marik moved to get up, and his drink clinked as he set the glass down on the nearby coffee table. Bakura sighed heavily. “Listen up, if you try to change my mind, then you can forget it. I already told you th-“ He turned around and stopped dead in his tracks as he met Marik’s stern gaze on him. “What?”_

_Marik held out his hand to him. “Give me your hand.”_

_“The fuck? Marik, I swear, I’m not gonna hold hands with you, I-“_

_Marik groaned annoyed and rolled his eyes. “I want to give you something, you little dipshit. So stop being an asshole.”_

_Bakura eyed him warily and wanted to protest, but the blond had already run out of patience and grabbed his arm. When Marik let go of it again, Bakura found one of his golden bracelets around his wrist. “Marik, what the bloody hell is this?”_

_“It’s a lucky charm, idiot.” Marik put his hand on his hip and returned to the couch. “I figured you’ll need it more than I do.”_

_“Hmpf. Thanks for believing so much in my skills, asshole.” Bakura snorted and took a look at it. He didn’t see anything special about it. Just a golden trinket like many he had seen before. He wanted to make a snarky remark about it, but didn’t bother._

_Marik took a long sip of his drink all the while piercing Bakura with his stark violet eyes. “I expect you to return it.”_

_Bakura met Marik’s gaze with his own and understood. A mutual understanding that this was not about the bracelet. Never had been. Marik wanted him to promise that_ he _would return to him using the so-called ‘lucky charm’ as some kind of poor excuse as neither one of them would admit the truth. Not yet anyways. Eventually, Bakura broke eye contact to look at the gold around his wrist again.  
“… Fine, I’ll bring it back.” _

_Bakura was gone the next day, only leaving a single monster card and a note that said “for safe keeping” behind._

 

 

\---

 

A sound of frustration escaped Bakura’s lips. He hadn’t been able to keep his promise to return the stupid trinket. And strangely enough that bothered him even more than the darkness around him.

The gold felt hot against his skin, even if he didn’t have a physical body per se in the shadows. It started to pulsate against his arm and he knew that another hallucination was coming up. “Bakura…” He heard Marik’s voice call out for him like the many times before and in despair he covered his face and ears with his arms and hands. “Go away.” He hissed at the hallucination.

“Bakura, you need to get up.” The hallucination insisted. “You need to get out of here.”

Bakura hoped it would stop soon again.

“Bakura… I can’t keep doing this... This is probably going to be the last chance for you to come with me.” Bakura groaned at the persistence of the hallucination. He didn’t like one bit how fast the words were affecting him. A hand touched his shoulder and had he still owned a living heart it would’ve stopped beating for a second. The touch was warm. Nothing was ever warm in the shadows.

Bakura stole a glance at the hallucination kneeling in front of him. He expected to see Marik shining at him with his piercing eyes, his glowing gold hair and his usual golden trinkets. Instead the blond looked exhausted. His hair was dull, and dark bags hung underneath his eyes. Big pleading eyes looked at him and Bakura knew that this time he had lost the fight and fallen into the trap of the shadows. “What happened to you?” He whispered and reached his hand out towards him.

The moment he touched him, his world exploded into light.


	2. Chapter 2

# Chapter 2

Almost every night, Marik cleared his living room, set up the candles and rolled up the carpet. Underneath, carefully placed chalk drawings were revealed. They had been drawn onto the wooden floor already so repeatedly by now that the markings would stay even if he tried to wash them off. Taking up a little bag with salt, Marik drew two circles onto the floor. One for himself and one for a small white doll.

Five years had already passed. Five years since Bakura had gone to fight his last war. He had promised to come back, but yet he hadn’t. So Marik had taken it in his own hands to find him. He wouldn’t let Bakura rot in the shadows a second time. The first time during battle city, there hadn’t been much Marik could’ve done to help him. But now he got more time at his hands. He had done his research together with Ryou’s help. Oddly enough Bakura’s old host was quite well versed in the occult and willing to help. Together they went through every spell they could find. It had been mostly fruitless. Eventually, after a lot of trial and error, only two of the spells opened up a door to the Shadows and only one of them had brought them to Bakura. However, the bastard had set up a barrier around himself, and wouldn’t listen to them. Multiple attempts to break through to him stayed without success. They had expected that it wouldn’t be so easy. However, they hadn’t thought Bakura would be so persistent even after months of trying.

At some point, they started to doubt the validity of the spells and feared that they only showed vivid hallucinations instead of reality. But the magic was proven to work just fine when they accidentally brought back Marik’s darker half about a month ago. It had been unexpected and it had been a shock to them to see him back in the mortal plane. Though, he had seemed to be more confused than violent or anything else and so they had decided to let him stay and give him a second chance. As Marik had not really been on good terms with him, Ryou had taken him in. He had been worried for his friend’s safety at first, but Ryou and his darker half, who was now named Kek, seemed to share some weird connection, so it somehow worked out.

However, with a lot of Ryou’s time being consumed by teaching Kek how to be a normal human being, Marik had been left alone with the spells most of the time. So he tried on his own and altered the magic, combined the spell with others, whatever came to his mind. On his last visit home he had even stolen a few scrolls from the tombs to read up on ancient Egyptian magic as he figured that would probably be his best call. And so he tried and tried and tried again.

But the daily trips to the shadow realm had taken their toll on the blond. As he used up all of his _heka_ , he grew more and more exhausted, never really allowing himself to rest long enough to fully recover and always pushing on.  The last few times, he had already run so low on _heka_ that he had had to tap into his _ba_ to make it back alive. This time, he already had to use some of his _ba_ to enter the shadow realm and he knew that it’d be the last time he was able to do this. So he put all of his strength into it. To his relief, he finally broke through Bakura’s barrier and once he opened his eyes again in the real world, a pale white haired man gasping for air had replaced the proxy doll.

 

\---

 

Light and warmth engulfed Bakura and he wished he could stay at this place, wherever this was, forever. His wish wasn’t granted and soon he felt like falling while the world around him rushed by in a blur. His fall came to an abrupt halt and he felt like he was being crushed on the ground. 

Sucking in a sharp breath Bakura shot up into a sitting position, the cold air burning in his lungs. He coughed and held his head. His ears rang, the room spun around him, and the swaying motion threatened to make him sick. After the darkness of the shadows, every tiny bit of light seemed too bright. He screwed his eyes shut. It took a while for his senses to adjust until he dared to open his eyes again. Slowly his blurry surroundings started to transform into distinct shapes.

He found himself in a room that, despite his first impression, was actually poorly lit by a dim overhead light and a few candles. The furniture was pushed against the walls to create an open space in the middle of the room where he was sitting. Even the rug was rolled up and placed in a corner, so it would not interfere with the circle of salt around him.

His hairs stood on their ends at the back of his neck when he felt the other presence in the room move closer to him. Even without seeing the person, he knew who it was.

A soft blanket was put around his shoulders and Marik’s tanned arms wrapped around him from behind. His voice was nothing more than a whisper next to his ear. “I’ve brought you back, Bakura. I finally did it.”

Bakura closed his eyes and enjoyed the warmth of the embrace for a few seconds. It was what he had yearned for for so long. His stomach twisted into a knot when he expected the Shadows to return and take it all away from him again, yet they never did.

Bakura’s eyes snapped open wide when Marik’s weight grew heavy on his shoulders and the blond’s body went limp before it suddenly slipped off to the side.

The Spirit cursed under his breath, trying to shake his friend awake without success. He checked him over and fortunately all vital signs were ok. From the looks of it, the blond had just passed out due to exhaustion.

“Stupid idiot. Don’t you know how dangerous it is to push over the limits of your _heka_?” Bakura grumbled as he softly brushed some golden strands of hair out of the other one’s face.

Bakura tore his gaze away from the sleeping blond and got on his feet. He swayed and had to hold onto a shelf nearby. He surely was out of practice when it came to controlling a body of flesh and blood. Once his body cooperated with him again, he tied the blanket around himself, dragged Marik onto the nearby couch and made sure he was lying comfortably.

Unable to tear his gaze away from the person who had brought him back from hell, Bakura crouched down next to the couch and hugged the blanket tightly around himself. Marik looked older than before, if only by a few years. Even without his jewellery, his kohl and fancy clothing, he still radiated a certain regalness not even the pharaoh could reach. The flickering light of the candles was reflected by Marik’s golden bracelet, the only golden trinket he wore at the moment.

Bakura’s hand instinctively went to touch the golden bracelet on his own arm. That’s right. He had to return it. Hesitantly he took it off. The bracelet had been his light in the dark, the only thing keeping him company for years. It pained him to just give it away and he wanted to keep it, but it wasn’t his. Before, he had never cared about such things as properties. He had just taken what he liked. However, he had sworn to return the gold and he wasn’t one to break a promise. Besides, why bother with a small light when Marik himself was shining like the sun.

Silently Bakura slipped the trinket onto the other one’s arm. It was better to return it fast before he woke up again or else Bakura feared he might speak out loud what he just thought. And some things were better left unspoken for now.

When it became clear that Marik wouldn’t wake up any time soon, Bakura got up and stretched his legs. Afterwards he proceeded to check out the rest of the apartment. It was medium sized with a kitchen, a bathroom, a living room, a guest room and a bedroom. The furnishing was nothing special, a bit boring even, with almost non-existent decoration safe for a few photos of Marik’s siblings on a shelf. All in all, the apartment didn’t look very much like Marik and Bakura wondered what had become of the flamboyant boy the blond had once been.

Though, Marik wasn’t a boy anymore. He was a young man at the start of his twenties now and Bakura didn’t miss that he himself also looked like an older version of his old host when he passed the mirror on the wardrobe. At first he thought he was back in Ryou’s body. However, there was no ring around his neck and he could not detect any other soul. This body was his and his alone now. He grimaced at his reflexion that looked so much like his old host. He would’ve preferred his original appearance. Not wanting to look at his image any longer, he opened the wardrobe and got himself some clean clothes. They were a bit too big though. He’d have to get other ones at some point.

 

\---

 

Marik stretched as he sat up and yawned. He rubbed his aching back, the couch wasn’t very comfortable to sleep on, but sleep was something he had been in deep need of. He scratched his head and for a moment he thought it had all only been a dream. The gold glistening around his wrist told him otherwise. His eyes fell onto the broken and smudged salt circles on the floor and he could hear the sound of cupboard doors from the kitchen. He was on his feet and dashed into the other room. “Bakura?”

Said thief hit his head on the counter as he crawled out of the cupboard. He rubbed his head and held up a can of beans. “What the fuck is that, man? I’m starving, but I only keep finding veggie shit in here! Don’t you have anything decent at home?”

Marik blinked and stared at him for a second. After five damn long years, the former spirit crouched there in front of his cupboard like he had never left and insulted Marik’s food habits. The annoying pest hadn’t changed at all.

Suddenly Marik burst out laughing. He didn’t even know why he was laughing. Perhaps it was because of how surreal the situation seemed to him. He still couldn’t believe Bakura was back. Or perhaps he just laughed as a way to get rid of all the tension that had built up inside of him over time. It felt good.

The blond pounced at Bakura, taking him in a headlock and mussing up his hair all the while still crackling. “I’ve missed you, asshole.” He said once he let go and got up from the cold floor again.

Bakura huffed as he tried to –unsuccessfully- fix his mess of hair. His face split into a grin as he, too, got up and dusted off his pants. “Same.”

The action brought Marik’s attention to Bakura’s clothes. A pair of light blue jeans and a black shirt. “Where the hell did you get these clothes from? Those aren’t mine.”

“Ryou’s. Should’ve better stayed there for food as well. His food is at least edible.”

“Ey! There’s nothing wrong with my food! It’s perfectly fine and healthy!” Marik scroffed. “…Wait, you were at Ryou’s?”

“Yes. What the hell is going on with him and your darker half? Did I miss something while I was gone?” Bakura asked as he used Marik’s iPhone to look up places with take-out food. Wait, hadn’t the phone been in Marik’s pocket just a second before and how did he get over the unlock screen so fast? Though, never mind, he should’ve expected it. It was Bakura after all.

Marik shook his head at Bakura’s behaviour. “Believe me, you don’t want to know.”

“… Does that mean Ryou got laid by an Ishtar before I did? UNFAIR – Yes, hello, I would like to order number 107. Big portion please, no chickpeas. No wait, make it two big portions.” Bakura looked over to Marik and pointed at the phone. “You want something too?”

Marik rolled his eyes at Bakura’s first statement and raised an eyebrow at his second. “Bakura, it’s 6 am. It’s not the time for take-out food. “

“So?”

“Number 72, whatever.”

 

\---

 

Bakura dug into his food and shovelled everything into his mouth in a ridiculously short amount of time. He had really felt like he was starving. His new body hadn’t gotten any nourishment at all yet. After the first portion was eliminated, he slowed down so he could actually enjoy the second round. When controlling Ryou’s body, his senses had always been dulled. Now with a body of his own, the taste was almost like sensory explosions in his mouth and he shortly wondered if it’d be like that with all senses.

Marik watched him eat his meat with a slightly disgusted expression, but didn’t comment on it any further. Instead he went on to update Bakura on what had happened during the time he was gone.

Bakura scrunched up his nose when he heard that some of the millennium items had returned along with some weird deus ex machina cube and caused some ruckus a few years ago. But honestly, he couldn’t care less about the items anymore. The souls of his village had been freed from them, so everything that tied him to the items was gone as well. It bugged him a lot more that the pharaoh had been sitting in _Aaru_ the whole time while Bakura himself had even been denied entry into the _Duat_. That hadn’t been fair. On the other hand, Marik said it was a lot easier to get a soul back from the Shadows than from the other world. So perhaps fate had been in his favour anyways.

Since then everything had calmed down a lot without any shadow-magic related events. Yugi and the nerd herd were by now all working or taking classes in college or both. Ryou had turned his hobby into his job and was now a costume and make-up artist for horror movies. Marik had moved to Japan shortly after he had turned eighteen and he had been working for the Domino museum ever since. He didn’t sound too excited about it.

Bakura shoved the empty plate away from him and leaned back in his chair. He let out a content hum.

They spent the rest of the morning talking until Marik had to leave for work.

 

\---

 

Marik had offered Bakura to stay in the guest room for as long as he wanted. Two days later, the former spirit was already prancing around the apartment like he owned the place while wearing only boxer shorts. It irritated Marik a little bit, but Bakura justified it by claiming he had never worn much in his previous life. Besides, it was summer and quite warm anyways. 

The third day was Marik’s day off, so he used the chance to literally drag Bakura to the mall for some clothes shopping. Simply put, his friend’s taste for clothes was utterly horrible and they spent the biggest part of the day bickering about what to buy. Yet both of them ended up with at least three bags of new things each.

The next morning, Marik found a pair of golden earrings and a sloppy note saying ‘Rent’ on his dresser. Bakura had stolen them for sure, something Marik didn’t completely approve of. Yet the gesture brought a smile to his face. It wouldn’t stay the only ‘rent’ he received over the following weeks and he actually found it was quite cute how much effort the thief put into courting him with his gifts, really. He chose them carefully, always making sure to hit Marik’s taste one hundred percent. Though, when being called out on it, it was ‘just some random thing he found, nothing worth mentioning’. Funnily enough, all golden ‘random things he found’ ended up in Marik’s jewellery chest while Bakura kept the silver ones for himself.

Soon Marik found himself wearing as much gold as he used to during his teenage years. It looked good and he wondered why he had even stopped.

 

\---

 

“What is it?” Marik demanded to know. They were on their way back from the grocery store and Bakura wore a suspiciously huge grin on face.

“What is what?” The other one chirped innocently.

“That grin. You’re up to something.”

Bakura’s grin just widened and he revealed a bottle of booze. “I’ve been back for a bit over two weeks now, but I believe we haven’t celebrated my return properly yet. I got us something suited for the occasion.”

Marik stopped walking and almost made Bakura bump into him. “Did you just shoplift that?”

The thief shrugged. “It was way too easy, really. Besides, I don’t have any money to buy something and I wouldn’t even be allowed to buy that without any ID.”

Marik raised his eyebrow. “You know, I already half expected you to have stolen Ryou’s ID when you went there.”

Bakura scoffed offended. “It would be most convenient. That's true. But I’m not Ryou.” He frowned. “It’s already enough that I still have to look like him.”

The blond raised his hands in defence. “Sore spot, I get it, okay, okay.” Then he tapped his chin in thought and resumed walking. “But you’re right about the ID thing. I’ll have to make some calls this evening.”

“Calls? To your mafia buddies?”

“Bakura! I’m ‘reformed’ now.” Marik scolded. “I wouldn’t call it mafia. I’d call it people who owe me.”

Bakura let out one of his loud laughs, not believing one bit Marik had said.

Marik pointed at the alcohol to change the subject. “I hope for you that’s the good shit.”

It was not. Nevertheless, they got themselves so drunk that Marik was only able to remember half of the evening and cursed his very existence the next morning when he had to leave for work.

 

\---

 

Furiously Marik tossed his jacket into the corner and stomped through the living room. “Ra, I HATE this shitty job.” He grumbled as he made his way towards his room. Not only had he had a huge hangover this morning, no, he had also arrived at work way too late. That had earned him a fair warning from the boss and an extra amount of work as punishment. Thankfully his hangover was gone by the time he returned home.

“Good evening to you too.” Bakura was lingering around on the couch with the playstation controller in his hands. Marik just glared at him and gave him the finger as a greeting. The shitty day had been partly his fault. The drinks had been his suggestion after all.

Bakura chuckled and curled his lips into a grin. “Stressy day at work?” He purred. His attention had left the game and was now completely on the blond.

“What’s so fucking funny, asshole? And yes, I got scolded at work because your cheap booze got me too shitfaced last night to function properly today.” Gods, he definitely wasn’t in the mood to put up with Bakura right now.

“Well, since I was the reason for your stress, how about I help you do something about it?” His grin widened even more and he raised his eyebrow suggestively. “Certain… limitations don’t exist anymore, you know.” Bakura licked over his lips and the way he looked him over sent a pleasant shiver down Marik’s spine. They’ve had their fair share of flings back then in the past, always blaming the crazy teenager hormones, alcohol, stress or everything together. However, those earlier encounters had always been quite innocent and never really went below the belt line. Bakura might’ve always been an asshole, but not even he had dared to cross the boundaries Ryou had set for him in that aspect. With a body of his own, though, these limits did not apply anymore.

“Are you still drunk, Bakura?”

“No, I’m just bored out of my mind. Let’s have fun.”

Marik just stared at him. Bakura raised a brow suggestively.

“You won’t be able to walk anymore by tomorrow.”

“Is that a threat or a promise? Honestly, I wouldn’t mind either way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now I'm one of these assholes who leaves you with blue balls and ends the chapter right there. 
> 
> On another note, I had really a lot of trouble with this chapter and the next one. I hope they turned out halfway ok-ish.
> 
> Thanks again to Sitabethel for beta'ing!


	3. Chapter 3

# Chapter 3

 

The next morning, the alarm clock rang way too early for Marik’s taste. He sat up, yawned and brushed his hair back with his hand. When his mind pieced back together what had actually happened the previous night, his face blushed a deep red. Fortunately Bakura wasn’t there to see that as he had gone to the shower and returned to his own room right afterwards.

A shower sounded like a good idea right now. Marik took his time in the bathroom to get ready for work and grimaced when he found his upper arms to be covered in scratches. Great. He’d have to wear long sleeves to cover that up and it was still warm outside.

While Bakura was still dead to the world, Marik started to roam around in the kitchen. The scent of breakfast and freshly brewed coffee eventually lured the other one out of his lair as well. ‘Lair’ was exactly what Bakura’s room was as it was already stuffed to the brim with random things he had stolen on their rare trips to town. Marik swore the guy was a damn magpie.

And he was at it again. Marik just caught him as he stole his coffee. “Hey! That was mine!”

Bakura just winked at him. He took a sip on the coffee and promptly burned his lips. Served the bastard right. Cursing, he sat on the counter. When Marik gave him a disapproving stare, he just grinned again and took another sip of the coffee. “So, what’s today’s plan?”

The blonde shrugged. “Well, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I am going to work now.”

Bakura let out a whine. “But I’ve got nothing to do and it’s so damn boring here.”

Marik rolled his eyes. “You never got anything to do. How about you make yourself useful?” He nodded towards the dishes piling up in their sink by now.

The other one snorted and slid down the counter again. “Yeah, you wish. Do I look like a housewife to you? Sure as fuck not.” He placed his empty mug onto the other dirty dishes and went to the living room.

Marik grit his teeth. The apartment was slowly becoming a mess as neither of them was really a neat freak. Bakura refused to clean at all and Marik refused to clean away Bakura’s mess. It didn’t really help that they were both stubborn and neither of them had any intention of giving in any time soon.

It also looked like Bakura didn’t have any intentions of changing it as it went on like that for the following weeks. All in all, he wouldn’t do much. He barely left the house at all, only if Marik dragged him along or to comply with his sudden urges to steal something. Mostly he just spent his days playing video games or brooding. No wonder, he got bored of everything. The only thing he never seemed to get bored of was the newly acquired benefits of their friendship.

 

\---

 

The wind howled through the streets and dark clouds covered the sky. The loud thunder of the first heavy storm of fall vibrated through the air. Bakura stood next to the window and leaned against the backrest of the couch. He watched how the rain drops hit the glass panel. It was the only sound filling the room. And his head. No other voice talking back to him. No Zorc who dug his claws into his very essence while lulling him in with sweet lies. No Ryou who tried to fend the demon off with soft words. It was only Bakura now and he was left to his own thoughts.

It was scary to be alone in his mind again. Ever since he had been a child, he had never been alone. The spirits of Kul Elna had always been there. Their screams had always filled the silence with him being the only one to hear them. After he had acquired the ring, there had been Zorc and he had stayed for over 3000 years. And whereas Ryou had never spoken much, his presence had always been there for a good few years as well and Bakura had grown too accustomed to it.

A finger flicked against the side of his head. “What?” He snapped at the blond. He had been so in thoughts that he never heard the other one entering the room. Before, there had been a time where he’d never lower his guard and always stayed on edge. A person approaching him would’ve never slipped by him unnoticed. But with Marik he didn’t seem to mind lowering his guard. And it upset him because he couldn’t understand why.

“What’s with the brooding face again?” Marik asked as he leaned on the backrest of the couch.

Bakura stared ahead, contemplating whether he should give a proper answer or not. “Have you ever missed your other half’s voice in your head?”

Marik tilted his head, taken aback a little by the question. “Well… It was weird without him at first, yeah. Why?”

“I’m feeling hollow without the voices inside my head.” Bakura admitted and hugged himself absentmindedly all the while still gazing at the water drops running down the glass.

“Fill the emptiness.” Marik suggested. Did he really think it would be so easy? Marik of all people should know it was not.

“With what?” Bakura sneered. “There’s nothing left to fill it with. My thirst for vengeance was all that kept me going. Without it I have no idea why I’m even here for.”

Marik nodded slowly as he stared ahead of himself probably remembering that he had gone through a similar situation. He perked up again. “Then you’ll need a new goal. Are there any dreams or wishes or anything you want to accomplish?”

Bakura let out a short bitter laugh. “Whenever I dream, I only see nightmares. I don’t have a purpose. At least not anymore. I died three thousand years ago. I’m nothing but an intruder into this world.”

“My purpose was gone together with the pharaoh as well, but that didn’t stop me from finding a new goal for myself.”

“And what would that be?” Bakura glanced at the other one.

“Well” Marik said as he poked his side. “I brought you back, now didn’t I?”

Bakura let out a small squeal and flinched away from Marik’s finger. Damn. Marik had just found out he was ticklish and as he knew the bastard, he’d totally use that to his advantage from now on. 

 “Sappy bullshit.” Bakura retorted quickly to draw the attention away from Marik’s most recent discovery.

“Says the sap who only steals the golden jewellery with amethysts.”

Bakura felt his face heat up at that. “I-uh… I have my preferences, okay?”

“Suuure, you do.” A smug grin appeared on Marik’s face. “Well anyways, where were we? Oh yeah, purposes in life. Isn’t there anything you want to do? Something you missed out on before? I know your own childhood wasn’t much better than mine and afterwards there was pretty much only vengeance without the chance to actually live life to its fullest. Not only for you, but for me too.” He frowned at the childhood part, but his eyes started to sparkle with excitement when he went on. “There’s so much out there to see and so much to do. Don’t you want to do and see everything? I want to.”

“Then why are you still here?” Bakura gestured around the apartment. “Why haven’t you already long gone to see everything then? Why stick around here, trying to bring me back for so long when you could’ve already long followed your dream?”

“Because there’s no point in doing it alone, silly.”

 

\---

 

The recent talk had Marik thinking. He knew exactly how it felt to somehow be left seemingly alone in the big world without a purpose in life. He had felt the same. Everything he had known was gone at once, the tombkeeper’s duty, the Ghouls, his vengeance and everyone had expected him to directly function like a normal human being accustomed to all weird quirks of society.

He had hated it and the pressure that society was putting on him. So, he had preferred to be on his own a lot. In the end, that had only done more harm to him than good. Might be it was similar for Bakura as well. Marik should try to get Bakura to leave the house more often. It wasn’t healthy for him to stay in the apartment all the time either.

Therefore, Marik had already made plans for the weekend to change that. Knowing the other one would probably not play along well, he didn’t even tell him where they were going and Bakura first got to know once they arrived in front of one of Domino’s biggest the night clubs.

Bakura buried his hands in his pockets and complained almost the whole time they spent waiting in the queue to get inside. “Marik, I don’t wanna go in there. There are way too many people and it’s way too loud. Let’s just go home.”

The blond wagged his finger. “Na-ah. You’re only hiding yourself inside. You really need a change of scenery. We’re going in now and I won’t accept a no. Besides I didn’t spend three hours in the bathroom for nothing.” He flicked his hair over his shoulder. It was their turn already and he quickly dragged the other one into the club before he could protest any further. He patted Bakura’s shoulder before entering the main room. “Give it a try at least. If you really don’t like it, we’ll go home again.”

Bakura grunted something and made a beeline for the bar with Marik in tow. He took a seat in one of the booths at the back and when their drinks came, he just clung to his.

Marik sighed. He had somehow imagined this a little bit easier. When he asked if Bakura wanted to go dancing, he just got a grumpy ‘no’ as response. The answer was still the same after the second drink, but he was by far in a better mood. And the way he was tapping his foot in rhythm to the music actually told that yes, he wanted to dance, but was too proud to admit it.

So Marik changed tactics. “Well, **_I_** want to dance.” He proclaimed and got up from his seat. “Either you come with me or you stay here and suffer alone. Suit yourself.”

The thief was already on the dancefloor before Marik could finish his sentence. Marik laughed out loud, but it drowned in the noise of the crowd. They danced for quite a while before they grew thirsty again and went back for a new round of drinks.

Marik couldn’t remember the last time he had gone out and had so much fun. He hoped that it was the same for his friend. Judging from Bakura’s current behaviour it was. The thief was already back on the dancefloor again. Who knew he’d enjoy dancing so much.

They had no idea how long they danced and how long they stayed in the club, but the first rays of the sun were already starting to illuminate the sky when Marik half-carried Bakura home again.

The next day came with an enormous hangover. But when Marik woke up, he found a glass of water, some aspirin and a note with barely readable writing saying “Sober us will love this. See ya later, fucker. Greetings, drunk Bakura & Marik.” and an ugly smiley face on his nightstand.

 

\---

 

Whereas Marik had considered the trip to the nightclub a small success in luring Bakura out of his shell, he couldn’t seem to be able to make any progress in the next days. When they were doing something together, Bakura’s mood lightened up greatly. But it seemed to drop just as fast again when he was left on his own during the day.

It wouldn’t be the first time that Marik just found the other one silently brooding or even locked up in his room when he returned from work. Sometimes he refused to get up from bed all in all and slept through the whole day.

The blond was starting to get worried for his friend. His behaviour reminded him too much of his own. Now he understood how his siblings and friends must’ve felt when he had denied any kind of social contact and had totally closed in on himself in the past. He felt helpless and just hoped that Bakura would come seek a conversation about it on his own.

Marik first realized the full severity of the situation when one of the lowest points was reached. It was a Wednesday evening and he came home from a stressy day at work. His coworker had been sick. So in addition to his office work, Marik also had to take over half a shift as tourist guide. Much to his displeasure there always had to be one idiot among the tourist group who thought they knew better than the rest of them. The argument had cost Marik’s last nerves and he had been more than happy to dump them all at the souvenir shop at the end of the tour. 

“Bakura, I’m home!” Marik called out as he entered the apartment and hung his keys on a hook next to the door. He waited for an answer while he took off his shoes and his jacket, but it never came. The water in the bathroom was running, so he figured the other one was probably taking a shower or something. Marik intended to beeline to the fridge for something to eat, but just as he passed the bathroom door he noticed it was open.

Bakura was leaning against the sink, his hands clutching both sides of it. The water was running and his knuckles had already turned white from the tight grip. He stared at his image in the mirror and his expression was a mixture of anger, helplessness and despair. He lifted a shaking pale hand and stared at it for a long time. “What have you done to me? Why did you bring me back in this body?”

Marik took a moment to understand what he meant. “It was the only way to bring you back.”

Bakura continued staring at his mirror image and ran his slim pale fingers over the cheek where the scar had been once. “What have you done to me? This isn’t me. This is nothing but a shadow, nothing more than a mere copy of Ryou.”  He squeezed his eyes shut and hugged himself tightly. His nails left white marks on his skin and were close to drawing blood.

“Don’t.” Marik said as he closed in on him and took Bakura’s hands in his own. “You’ll hurt yourself.” He switched the water off. Gently he turned the other one away from the mirror as his own reflexion seemed to cause him so much distress. “There was no other way. The magical spell required a part of your body to work. We had nothing else, so in the end Ryou donated a strand of his hair as that was the closest we could get.”

Bakura looked up at Marik for the first time during their talk and Marik had never seen him this vulnerable before. Had Marik known what effects this body would have on his friend, he would’ve driven out into the desert and dug for Bakura’s remains with his bare hands before casting the spell. But at that time, he had just wanted to bring him back _somehow_ , not caring how and not caring about the consequences. He had been selfish and now he felt guilty.

Bakura glanced back at his reflexion. “I wish you’d have left me in the shadows.” He started to tremble so much that Marik was afraid his legs would give in. The blond sat down on the cold bathroom tiles and pulled Bakura on his lap. Bakura lay limp in his arms as he rocked him back and forth in a comforting manner.

“This body doesn’t belong to me, it’s not mine and yet I am trapped in it and I can feel it withering and dying around me.” Bakura clutched the front of Marik’s shirt with one hand and buried his face in his shoulder. “I’m afraid of this mortal body.”

“Shhh. It’s gonna be ok.” Marik hummed lowly and softly ran his hand through Bakura’s hair to soothe him. He couldn’t even imagine what it must feel like to be trapped inside and to be tied to a mortal body again after having spent what felt like an eternity as an immortal spirit. Bakura had used Ryou’s body back when he possessed the ring, but then again controlling a host was definitely not the same as truly having a body of his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have risen from the dead after the holidays XD  
> I'm not really sure whether I like this chapter or not. The filler parts were damn hard to write and I just bullshitted my way through them, but the more serious parts were really fun and I really loved the last scene (thumbs up to those who recognized the scene from the Last Unicorn). I've seen lots of post-canon fanfics dealing with the "I've got no purpose in life anymore" issues, but I barely see any fanfics that deal with the fact that an actual physical body itself might already be a huge problem for a 3000 years old spirit. I mean, Bakura hasn't been attached in a mortal body in so long (He could only control Ryou's, so I wouldn't really call that attachment), I think it'd be a huge issue for him to be trapped in one again and actually feel how it ages and changes (even if only a few weeks have passed yet). 
> 
> Thanks again to Sitabethel for beta'ing!
> 
> It can take a while until the next chapter is up. I still have guests over at my place and half of the next chapter isn't even written yet. Woops. (smartass me wrote chapters 5-8 before I wrote the start of the story pfffth)
> 
> Also on another note, AO3 is showing the author's note of the first chapter behind the author's note of this third chapter and I don't know why????


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The biggest part of this chapter has not been beta'ed, so feel free to point out any spelling/grammatical errors.  
> Somehow this was the chapter I had the biggest problems with and then it turned out to be the longest chapter, lol.  
> Also, I'm taking inspiration for how to write Kek from Sita's stuff.

# Chapter 4

 

Another autumn storm let the wind howl through the streets and the dark rain clouds hovered dangerously over the town. It mirrored the current mood in the apartment perfectly.

Marik turned his head away from the window and buried it in his pillow with a sound of frustration. He winced when he stretched the scars on his back while moving. His back had never liked sudden weather changes and this just seemed to be a bad day again. Usually, he’d just stay in bed at times like this and don’t move at all, but he knew he had to do something about Bakura.

Marik had only known Bakura for a few weeks before he had left for the final RPG. His company had been nice. But Marik first realized how much Bakura meant to him after he had been gone. Bakura hadn’t just been his ally against the pharaoh, but also his first real friend outside the tomb. The blond had thought that after his darker half was defeated, Yugi and the others, too, were his friends. But he had soon found out that it was a quite superficial relationship and he hated to put on an act just to get accepted by them. He didn’t want to play nice and Bakura had been the only one who had taken him for how he was. And he had wanted to bring Bakura back to have some company in which he wouldn’t feel lonely anymore.

His motives had been selfish and he had never even thought about the consequences. Now exactly these repercussions came crashing back on them and Marik had no idea what to do. He just knew that he couldn’t stand seeing Bakura like this.

 

\---

 

“You should’ve seen him.” Marik softly blew on the tea before taking a careful sip. “He was devastated. I honestly have no idea what I should do. He’s not doing well at all, but nothing I try seems to help. Yesterday he said he would’ve preferred to stay in the shadows and he hasn’t left his room ever since then. I’m afraid, Ryou, really.”

“And you think I’d be able to help?” Ryou asked as he set his own tea cup on the table. “He only came to see me once after his return. I don’t think he wants to see me or else he would’ve dropped by more often already.” The white haired male looked disappointed. After all, he had put almost as much work into the spells as Marik had. But Bakura wasn’t really the person to acknowledge any of their effort anyways.

Marik pondered for a moment. He had no idea what Ryou should do about it either. But he’d been the only person Marik dared to ask for help. “Could you try at least? I think it’d be good if he had someone else to talk to and you’re the only one who knows him well enough.”

“Fine, but I can’t promise anything… You know how he is.” Ryou nodded lost in thought.

“I think I know how to solve the asshole’s problem.” The third person in the room suddenly said. Kek had been leaning against the counter, silently listening to Marik’s whole story until now.

Marik blinked his eyes in surprise and looked over at him. “You do?”

Kek crossed his arms and snorted. “Don’t believe me, do you?”

“I-uh-“ He didn’t even know. Did he believe him? A few months back, the answer would’ve been a definite no, but Marik had to admit that the change Kek had gone through was amazing. He had gone from murderous psychopath to a somewhat presentable human being in quite a short time. They still weren’t the best friends, but their relationship had improved a lot as well. So, if Kek said he knew a way to help, Marik should at least give him a chance to prove himself. “What did you have in mind?”

 

\---

 

Bakura lay on his bed with his face in his pillows. Ever since the incident in the bathroom the day before, he felt like he had been deprived of all energy. He had drawn the heavy curtains shut as he knew Marik wouldn’t come to bother him if the room was all dark.

He let out a groan when he heard pounding on his door. The door was opened shortly afterwards and someone stepped to his bed. “Marik, I already told you to fuck off.”

“Good thing, I’m not Marik then.” The voice that sounded so much like Marik’s, but wasn’t, came from directly next to his ear.

Bakura sucked in a sharp breath as he felt adrenaline rush through his body and he shot up into a sitting position. Wide eyed he stared at the person in front of him. Marik had told that his darker half was reformed now, but honestly? Old habits die hard and Bakura didn’t exactly trust Kek one bit. Not after being sent to the shadow realm by him.

Kek just laughed as he stood straight again. “Time to get up, dickhead!”

Bakura sneered at him and scanned the room for a weapon or an exit. Kek was standing in front of his night stand, so Bakura couldn’t get access to his knife. It’d also be hard to get to the door. Maybe a good old hit with the chair would knock the other one o-

Bakura yelped as Kek suddenly lunged forward and grabbed him by his collar. “You’re coming with me now.”

Bakura yelled and struggled, however Kek’s grip on him was too strong and he could do nothing but follow. He could hear Marik and Ryou call something after them. When they passed Ryou, Kek also grabbed him and pulled him along as well. Harshly, he dragged both of them off to the bathroom.

Bakura gasped for air once he was released again and held his throat where the hem of his shirt had put too much preassure on his skin. “What the fuck?”

Kek just slapped the back of Bakura’s head and pulled him closer to the mirror by his hair. He did the same with Ryou, although a lot softer and careful. “Look at it.” He growled at Bakura and repeated it when Bakura refused. “You’re nothing alike. You’re not his copy. You’re what you make out of your own. Get that into your thick head and stop whining. LOOK AT IT GODDAMNIT!”

Bakura snorted and glanced at the mirror. But something caught his eye and for the first time he took a real look at himself. Not just staring at his reflexion like he used to, but also paying attention to the small details. His silver mane looked unkempt in comparison to Ryou’s tidy and silky hair. No matter what he tried and how much he brushed it, it’d always look messy, not necessarily in a bad way though.

Ryou’s eyes darted nervously between his own reflexion in the mirror, Kek’s and Bakura’s. And Bakura noticed that their eyes as well were nothing alike. It was always said that the eyes were the door to people’s souls. It couldn’t have been any truer. Ryou’s were bigger and radiating with warmth and kindness whereas Bakura’s gaze was a lot more piercing. The colour was different as well and in contrast to Ryou’s chocolate eyes, Bakura’s had a tint of red in them.

Moreover, Ryou’s facial features were softer than his angular ones. It was funny how a small flex of their jaw muscles made their faces look so different. Additionally, their posture was not the same giving both of them their distinct auras. The more Bakura looked at them, the more it seemed impossible to mistake them for one another. The only things they seemed to have in common were the fair skin and the silver hair.

It was weird how their bodies had started off as identical copies, but yet they both wore them differently without doubt. It made Bakura feel a lot better to see that Ryou was no longer the original and he was no longer the fake. That was his new self now if he liked it or not and accepting that fact didn’t seem to be impossible anymore. It’d still be a long way though.

Bakura saw Kek grin at him in the mirror once the realization came. He wiggled out of Kek’s grip and smirked as he rested one hand on his hip and waved his other. “Of course we’re not the same. I’m clearly the more handsome one.”

Ryou let out a small a small protest and started to pout. “That’s not true!”

“It sure is.”

“You wouldn’t even look half as good if Marik didn’t pick the outfits for you.” Ryou looked as innocent as ever. Had he always been such a little prick? Probably yes, but he hid it a lot better than Bakura.

“Now I’m hurt, Ryou. See what you did!” Bakura faked to be in shock, but started to chuckle shortly afterwards.

Behind them he could hear the two Ishtars talking as well.

“I’m surprised that actually worked.” Marik said to his own double.

Kek’s face split into a smirk. “I knew it would.”

“How come you knew?”

“Because that’s what I wished someone would’ve done to us earlier to make me realize exactly the same.”

Marik frowned and a sombre expression crossed his face as he hummed in agreement. “Any other suggestions?”

Kek’s grin grew even wider as he started to drag Bakura off to the front door. “Yes. We’ll drag his sorry ass to the hairdresser now.”

Bakura let out a yelp as he was yanked away from the mirror. He yelled out several complaints as his hair was the only thing he actually liked. It was almost the same silver colour as his old hair, but it was healthier and shinier and he loved it.

Kek hmpfed. “Fine. Then we go to my favorite piercing and tattoo artist instead.”

“That… actually doesn’t sound so bad. Yeah, let’s do that.”

A tongue, several ear and various other piercings later, Bakura already felt a lot better in his skin. Though he cursed his very existence the next day when the pierced tissue was all irritated and swollen. He also earned several smug laughs and I-told-you-so’s from Marik’s side.

 

\---

 

Their little trip to town had done wonders. But after a few days Bakura’s bad mood had returned again. Maybe he had now accepted his new body, but he still couldn’t see any purpose in life for himself and spent most of his time either staring at the TV, the ceiling or out of the window. Marik could understand that to some extent and he had tried to give Bakura some smaller tasks in the house to make him feel a little bit useful at least. The problem was that he wouldn’t do any of them.

Marik didn’t know if Bakura was just being an asshole or if he was still depressed, but it pissed him off that Bakura refused to help one bit and just dumbed all work on him. The blond huffed as he let out his anger by scrubbing the dirty dishes maybe a bit harder than necessary. In that moment his roommate entered the kitchen as well and added one more mug to the pile. And Marik just saw red.

Marik took the mug and smashed it onto the floor in front of Bakura’s feet making the ceramic shards clatter over the tiles. “WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM?!”

Had it been anyone else, they probably would’ve backed off in fear thinking his darker half had once again taken over, but this was Bakura. He was already used to Marik’s smaller impulsive outbreaks and it wasn’t the first time Marik had thrown something after him. Mostly it had been when Bakura had pestered him during one of his backache days. Admittedly it had never been anything heavy or sharp before.

With an almost bored expression Bakura looked at the shards to his feet. Then he took a plate from the pile and smashed it onto the floor as well. “Damn, that felt good.”

Marik just gaped at him. It was one thing if he destroyed his own stuff, but another one if anyone else did. “And what the hell gives you the right to destroy my tableware?!”

“Well, what gives you the right to decide over MY life?” Bakura just sneered back before he turned on his heel to leave the kitchen.

“I didn’t decide over your life, I gave it back to you, asshole! I was doing you a favour!” Marik yelled after him. He threw the kitchen cloth onto the counter and followed.

“Maybe it was a mistake.”

Marik pressed his lips into a thin line as he gritted his teeth. “Do you have any fucking idea how much time, effort, energy, _heka_ and _ba_ it cost me to bring your sorry ass back?”

Bakura’s words hurt and the blond didn’t know how to deal with it right now. He felt like crying and like punching the bastard, but he was afraid anything bad would happen if he let their argument continue. So he just dashed out of the door and away from him.

 

\---

 

Bakura knew he shouldn’t have said it as soon as he saw Marik was fighting with tears. He hadn’t meant it, not really, and he definitely hadn’t intended to hurt him like he just did. Hesitantly he stretched out his hand towards his friend, but Marik had already turned away from him and ran out of the door.

Bakura called after him and followed. Their chase let them out of the apartment and up to the roof, taking two or three stairs at once. Marik had come to a halt in the middle of the rooftop.

Bakura slowly approached him and touched his shoulder. “Marik, listen, I-“

Marik spun around and pushed him off. “I gave you your fucking life back! I did everything to get you out of the Shadows! And what the hell do you do? You never even acknowledged any of the trouble I went through to get you and you’re throwing it all away! Bakura, you got a new chance but instead of using it, you let it rot away when you should be doing SOMETHING!”

“Don’t you DARE to tell me what to do with MY life!” Bakura yelled at the blond. The words had left Bakura’s mouth again faster than he could think. He knew Marik had only meant well, but Bakura had been manipulated and told what to do for too long when he had still been possessed by Zorc. For once _he_ wanted to be the one who decided over his own life and not someone else.

Together with his sudden outburst of emotions a huge flash of white flared around him, flooding him in ethereal silver light. Startled, Marik backed away until he hit the wall next to the door that led downstairs. In awe he stared at the huge winged creature with a serpent as its tail that coiled protectively around Bakura.

With wide eyes Bakura stopped dead in his tracks and gaped at the creature. Neither of them said anything or even moved for several minutes until, finally, Bakura sank down to his knees and sat down on the ground with his arms hanging limb by his sides and his head still turned to look upwards at the creature.

Hesitantly Marik approached him, but didn’t dare to come too close as the shining _ka_ was curling itself around his friend. “Bakura? Are you okay?”

Bakura tore his gaze away from the _ka_ to look at Marik with watery eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again as he found himself unable to speak. Instead he turned his attention back to Diabound and held his shaking hand out to softly caress his face.

A few more minutes passed until Bakura eventually choked out the word “How?”

Marik looked helplessly at him. “I don’t know?”

“What… what did you do with the card that I gave you before I left?” Bakura still didn’t look at Marik and just stared at the _ka_. His beautiful white god _ka_. His beautiful white god _ka_ that was no longer corrupted by shadow magic. His beautiful _ka_ that was finally by his side and part of him again.

“Ryou and me used it in the ritual that brought you back.” The blond answered tentatively. “The ritual required something connected to your soul. Since the ring was gone, we didn’t have anything connected to your soul. I still had the card you gave me and Ryou remembered seeing the monster from it in the final RPG, so we used that?” Marik’s voice pitched up at the end of the sentence. A question to Bakura as to whether that had been a good or a bad decision.

“Thank you.” Bakura whispered as tears started to spill down his cheeks and it was the first time Marik got to hear these words from him since his resurrection. For three thousand years Bakura had been separated from his _ka_. For three thousand years a part of his soul had been missing. But now his missing soul fragment was returned and for the first time in millennia he felt whole again. And it was then that he decided that Marik was right about what he had said before. He had been gifted a new life and he should be damned if he wasn’t going to use it well.

 

\---

 

Marik was at work, so Bakura had the whole apartment for himself at the moment. It was still early, so he had the entire day left. He rested his hands on his hips and looked around in the room for something to do. Returning to his old schedule of just lingering around on the couch, eating potato chips and playing video games surely sounded tempting, but he wanted to put his newly found life energy to good use. So he walked around in the flat in the hopes to find something to keep him busy.

Bakura scrunched up his nose when he found the pile of dirty dishes lying in the sink of the kitchen. Perhaps Marik had been right when he had accused him of always leaving a mess and never cleaning up after himself. And maybe it was about time to change that. So Bakura rolled up his sleeves, tied up his hair in a messy bun and got to work.

He didn’t stop just after the dishes and continued to scrub the whole kitchen, the living room, the bathroom and even did the laundry. Proudly Bakura looked at result of his work. Now Marik at least couldn’t complain again that he didn’t lift a single finger in their apartment. Huh… Their apartment. Actually that was the first time Bakura thought of the apartment as _theirs_ and not just Marik’s. But he had been staying here for what now? A bit less than half a year? So if he lived here too, it was only right to call it their place and not just Marik’s, wasn’t it? Though, it was Marik who paid for all of it. Bakura scratched the back of his head. He’d need to find a way to contribute somehow. It’d be unfair towards Marik if he was the only one paying the bills. He’d have to somehow make up for the trouble he caused him too.

When Marik found him cleaning the apartment, he went into a laughing fit and told Bakura that he’d make a good housewife. It led to one of their usual petty arguments when Bakura countered with some snarky remarks that may or may not have hinted that rather Marik was the wife due to his excessive use of makeup and fashion sense. As a response to the fashion remark, Marik ordered a maid dress for Bakura online which they promptly put to good use behind closed doors the day it arrived.

 

\---

 

“Ey, princess, I’m going out to town. Do you need anything?” Bakura yelled as he tied his shoes and put on his black trench coat.

As a response, a tanned hand flipping him off appeared through the doorway to the living room. “First off: FUCK YOU and second, nah, not really, I’m good. Though, perhaps something for dinner? I don’t care what.”

Bakura chuckled at their exchange. Even if they were often insulting eachother, they had grown kinda fond of it. He confirmed that he heard Marik, said his goodbye and then took off to town.

It was winter by now. Heavy clouds were covering the sky and the first snow had already fallen two weeks ago. Bakura took a deep breath of the cold air and closed his eyes. It was good to get outside. At home it felt like the ceiling would be falling on his head any time and he had never liked the feeling of being locked up somewhere. He didn’t know where to go today or what to do, but probably it’d result in his sticky fingers taking something that didn’t belong to him again. It was not like he had to steal anymore like back in the old days. He didn’t need it to survive. But he was good at it and he liked the thrill. Besides, Marik seemed to like the jewellery he brought home. At least as long as he didn’t know they were shoplifted from somewhere.

Without knowing it, his feet had carried him to the jewellery section of one of the big malls again and strangely enough his pockets were already halfway filled with goods he hadn’t paid for as well. He exited the mall again without getting caught. It had been way too easy. This was a joke. They should really stock up on their security.

Slowly a smirk crept onto his face. Yes, indeed, they should really stock up on their security. He turned on his heel and went back into the store, stealing more and more stuff just to see with which ridiculous amount he could get away with. In the end, he went to the register and asked to speak to the boss.

The boss was a short chubby man with big eyes that grew even wider in shock once Bakura presented his loot to him. Afterwards it didn’t take much to convince him that they definitely needed to do something about their security problem and that no one was better suited as mall detective than Bakura himself since he knew all tricks of thievery. The salary was quite alright as well, so he couldn’t complain.

Much to Marik’s delight, Bakura returned home that day with a bottle of wine, good food and a signed working contract that day.    

 

\---

 

When Marik woke up, he felt a weight on his side, an arm wrapped around his waist and Bakura’s shallow breath against his neck. He felt the other one stir awake now as well.

“Shit, must’ve fallen asleep.” Bakura muttered and Marik felt his weight the bed. The blond brushed the sleep out of his eyes and propped himself up on his elbows. “You know, you don’t always have to leave afterwards. I don’t really mind you staying here, Bakura.”

But the other was already out of the room. Marik watched the empty doorway for a few seconds before he sighed and lay back down to continue his sleep.

Since then, it started to occur more often that Bakura fell asleep in his bed instead of running away like he used to. However each time, he woke up, he’d leave again and each time Marik would tell him he was welcome to stay. Marik didn’t even think that Bakura didn’t want to say per se, it was more like some irrational fear was keeping him from doing it. And as long as he didn’t want to talk about it, Marik couldn’t really do anything against it either. He just hoped that at some point, Bakura would decide on his own to stay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again, I have no idea why it shows the AN from the first chapter underneath this one. I also think I did some mistake with the ratings when I posted this story initially, but I can't seem to be able to change it? I mean, I can change it in the settings, but it won't show the changes after I saved?


	5. Chapter 5

# Chapter 5

 

Bakura lay on the couch in the living room where he had fallen asleep the night before. The TV was still switched on and the “Game Over” screen flickered on it.

A soft buzzing sound kept disturbing his slumber. Grumbling, Bakura sat up and started to look for the source of the annoyance. Turned out it was Marik’s phone lying on the coffee table in front of him. The display showed that it was his sister calling and also that she had already tried to reach him three times before.

Bakura sighed and yelled out to Marik to get his lazy ass into the living room and pick it up. When he didn’t get any answer, he lifted himself off the couch and started to search the apartment for him. It was already quite late in the morning and the blond usually was awake at this time, though he was nowhere to be seen and the door to his room was still closed as well.

“Oh great. Not that again.” Bakura groaned and slowly made his way over to the door. Marik not getting up early and keeping his door closed could only mean that he had one of his bad days. Whenever he overslept, he was always in a horrible mood and Bakura had already learned to make a big bow around him then and lay low until Marik’s mood improved again. Marik’s always had a temper, but he was even easier to snap than usual when he had a bad day. And recently these bad days seemed to have gotten more frequent for whatever reason Bakura hadn’t figured out yet.

Carefully, Bakura opened the door to Marik’s room, just enough for his hand to fit through and throw the phone towards the bed. “Your sister’s been calling. You should better answer her.” He quickly closed the door again when he got an angry “FUCK OFF” as response. Jeez, what a wonderful way to start the day.

Bakura slouched to the kitchen to prepare himself some coffee and breakfast. The caffeine and the food helped to wake him up a bit. Not really feeling like doing anything productive on his day off, he just returned to the couch and continued to play the game he had started the evening before. He didn’t even notice how fast time went by until it was already past noon and the house phone suddenly started to ring. The display showed that it was Ishizu again. Something must’ve happened if she tried to call so often, and it didn’t seem as if Marik had checked in with her yet. Talking about the idiot, he still hadn’t risen from the bed. Usually it never took so long for him to appear, even if he had one of those days. Restlessly, Bakura shifted his position on the couch. Growing more and more concerned for his friend, he decided to enter the lion’s den again and make sure he wasn’t sick or something.

Marik lay on his bed with his face planted in his pillow. He growled some muffled insults at Bakura as he entered the room. “Fuck off, Bakura. Don’t you have anyone else to annoy?”

“Marik, Ishizu’s been calling at least 6 times already. I even brought you your cell phone, why don’t you pick it up or call her back or something?” Bakura stood next to his bed and crossed his arms. He scanned the floor for the cell phone and found it still lying where he had thrown it earlier.

“Because I can’t, asshole.”

Bakura rolled his eyes. “Of course you can. It’s right there. Stop being a drama queen. It’s like two meters away from you.”

The blond groaned and propped himself up on his elbows so he was able to look at the other one. “Because I just fucking can’t, okay?!” He yelled at him and fell back into his pillow with a whimper. “It burns. It burns, okay? It feels like the hot knife is cutting through it all over again, okay?” That last part was nothing more than a whisper.

Bakura stared at him and opened his mouth to say something, but couldn’t think of anything useful to say right now. Marik’s pained expression had shocked him. First now he realized that Marik wasn’t just being a drama queen about something ridiculous, but that he in fact could not get up because he indeed was not able to move due to physical pain on his back.

“… I didn’t know. Shall I get something for you?” He offered and scolded himself for not noticing earlier how miserable his friend was. At first he thought, Marik would throw him out of the room again, but after a long silence the blond peeked up at him from his pillow again. “… I want tea.”

After Bakura had brought him some tea (and also something to eat since he hadn’t eaten anything all day yet), he grabbed his winter jacket and took off to go downtown. It took him around two and a half hours to return again. That had been a lot longer than he had expected, but some of the ingredients that he wanted were hard to come by in Japan. He set everything up in the kitchen and around half an hour later he was already done with his work.

He entered Marik’s room again and knelt down next to the bed. Carefully he nudged Marik’s shoulder which made the other one flinch away in pain. “What do you want, Bakura?”

Bakura softly placed one of his hands on the other one’s arm to calm him down and held a bowl with something that smelled heavily of herbs to him. “I used to put this on my own scars back in the old days when they were giving me trouble. It’s an ancient recipe, but it always worked well.”

Marik turned his head and eyed the bowl warily not really sure what to think of it.

“Come on, Marik, I just want to help you.”

The blond let out a small sound of defeat and gestured Bakura to help him sit up and take his shirt off. Afterwards he crashed back into his pillow with a whimper.

Bakura stared in awe at Marik’s bare back for a moment. The scars ornamenting his back had a strange, twisted beauty to them. The way the skin rose and fell with each accurately drawn picture and hieroglyph was mesmerizing. Yet it made him sick when he thought about with which precision they had been carved into the flesh and what he must’ve felt while his back had been slashed into pieces by his own father.

Bakura had only seen the scars once when Marik had showed them to the pharaoh and he had been able to watch from the millennium ring during Battle City. But time had been sparse back then and he hadn’t had a chance to _really_ take a look. Otherwise, the Egyptian had always taken care to have them covered. Even in bed, he had always turned his back away from him. Bakura had taken it as a silent cue that he wasn’t supposed to touch him there either and Marik had always seemed to appreciate that very much before.

Bakura felt a small tug on his sleeve and Marik looked up at him with big pleading eyes that begged him to just stop the pain _somehow_. “Tell me if it hurts and I’ll stop again, alright?” He said before he started to softly dab an ointment covered finger on the sun disc that decorated the skin between Marik’s shoulder blades. Carefully he ran his fingers over the bulky scarred skin, unsure of how hard he could press down. “You okay with this?”

“Yes.” Marik sighed lowly. “Your fingers are cold. This is good.”

Bakura hummed in return and continued with his work. When Marik didn’t seem to mind, he started to use both hands to make sure the ointment would reach ever scar. He ran his hands up Marik’s spine again and started to massage his shoulders softly. And that’s when he noticed what the actual problem seemed to be. Maybe it wasn’t even the scars hurting him so much, but more so his tensed up muscles that had started to cramp and gotten sore after hours of holding the same position. Therefore, Bakura slowly started to massage the tension out of Marik’s back, often crosschecking with the blond’s face to see if he was doing the right thing. Soon he felt the other one relax more and more under his hands and under different circumstances he would’ve been delighted at the sounds he was receiving from Marik. But it wasn’t the right time for that now.

“Want to tell me why you’ve been so tensed up the in past weeks?” Bakura asked. When he felt Marik’s clenching up again, he sighed heavily. “Don’t wanna talk about it, hu?”

Marik shook his head, making his unkempt mess of golden locks bounce around his face. “That’s not it…” He narrowed his eyes dangerously, but not looking at anything in particular. “I’m just annoyed at everyone.” He pushed himself up into a sitting position to face Bakura. At least he was feeling well enough again to move. That was good. “WHY can’t they just leave me alone? WHY do they have to grin at me with those huge smiles and try to force me to be happy and to celebrate? All it does is making me want to carve those grins off their faces.”

As if knowing what had just been said, Marik’s cell phone started to ring again making him launch forward to grab it and throw it against the opposite wall. The display burst with a crack. “FUCK OFF” He yelled at the broken device.

Bakura watched the scene in silence, not very surprised by Marik’s sudden outburst of violence. In fact, considering how upset he was, it had only been a matter of time. Bakura let him blow off some steam and waited for him to calm down before he patted the bed next to him. “How about you sit down and start at the beginning?”

Marik huffed as he sat back down on the bed and hugged his pillow in front of his chest. “Today’s my birthday.” He spoke quietly.

 “But you’re not as happy about it as everyone wants you to be?” Come to think of it, they had never even spoken about such things as birthdays. Bakura had never deemed it to be of much importance. The modern way of making a huge event out of it still felt a little abstract to the former Spirit of the Ring. Plus, he didn’t even know his own birthdate in the modern calender, so he hadn’t seen a reason to bother about it before.

The Egyptian buried his face into his pillow and his shoulders trembled as he spoke. “How can I be happy on the date that marks the day I killed my mother and father? How can I be happy on the date that marks the day my own father carved my back open?”

Marik usually wouldn’t speak of his past, neither of them would. So, Bakura considered the fact that he did now a big step for him. Before he even knew what he was doing, Bakura moved forward to remove the pillow from Marik’s hold and pulled him into his arms. “Then don’t be. Don’t let them tell you how to feel. If you feel like shit, then it’s sometimes better to just let it all out and don’t let anyone force you to behave otherwise.” He petted the other one’s hair as he felt him leaning more into the embrace. “But I’ve learned that it’s easier to feel shitty together than alone. So, the next time, tell me beforehand so I can be upset and rant about these bastards with you instead of hiding in a room all alone, alright?”

Marik broke down at that and started to sob heavily. Still clinging to Bakura, he poured his whole heart out starting with the time he was locked underground in the tomb forbidden to ever catch a glimpse of the sun, his father who had never shown him any love and never shied away from using the whip, his brother who got to feel the whip most often and his sister who was unable to do anything against it, the initiation ceremony, how he had been forced to spawn his alternate ego in order to survive everything, how his alternate ego had killed the man he called father and how he had never known that he had killed his father with his own hands for years.

Bakura just held him and listened until Marik’s sobs evened out. He felt sad for the boy in his arms. No one should ever have to endure what he had to. But it also made him respect Marik a lot more than before. He couldn’t imagine the amount of strength it took to deal with all that and still be able to run around with such huge confidence that he usually displayed. And just like that he made the decision that, no matter what it took, he’d make Marik shine as bright as the sun because he had already seen enough darkness in his life. They both had.

He lay there together with Marik who had already long fallen asleep and combed through his sand coloured hair. After he had returned from the shadows, Bakura had felt lost and without purpose. Marik had been his support that never seemed to falter. In contrast to himself, Marik had seemed to have gained full control over his life. He had his own apartment, a well-paid job, friends, loving siblings and everything one could only wish for. But all of this happy life was only a farce, an act that Marik had put up to hide his problems and Bakura had been too blinded by his own issues to notice. But he swore to himself that from now on, that wouldn’t happen again and that from now on he’d pay attention and see.

 

\---

 

“Yes, yes, Ishizu. I’m sorry I didn’t pick up yesterday. I was out with a friend to celebrate as you suggested and my phone broke, you see.” Marik gave a happy little chuckle as he was talking on the phone and more superficial talk followed. To anyone else, he would’ve sounded very convincing, but this time Bakura had seen right through his act the moment he had greeted his sister.

Bakura stared intensively at Marik who had just hung up the phone and turned towards him.

“What?” The blond asked.

Bakura slowly closed the book he had been reading and continued staring at Marik. “I’m going to assume you lied to your sister because you didn’t want to worry her and I can understand that to some extent. But tell me, Marik, why do you think you even need to go Namu on your own family?”

Genuine confusion showed on Marik’s face for a moment. “What? What do you mean with go Namu?”

“You don’t even notice it yourself, do you? The way you’re pitching up your voice when you talk to your sister or to the nerd herd, heck even the cashier in the bloody supermarket. It’s the same as when you were pretending to be Namu back in Battle City. So my question to you now is: Why are you still pretending, Marik?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks a lot again to Sita for beta-ing!


	6. Chapter 6

# Chapter 6

 

“Why are you pretending, Marik?” Bakura’s brown eyes seemed to pierce him when he asked his question.

“People change, Bakura. It doesn’t have to mean that I’m pretending.” Marik shot him a cold glance telling him not to pry any further. That didn’t stop Bakura from trying though.

“Marik, I see how you force the happy look on yourself whenever you interact with people and I see how your face falls the moment they look away. Your act is good, that I do admit, but it’s just an act nonetheless.” Bakura looked him over with a dead serious expression. His gaze grew softer. “Don’t force yourself to be someone you’re not.”

Was Marik really that easy to read? After his dark half was gone, everyone expected him to be nice and happy. Marik had already done too much harm in the past and he hadn’t wanted to cause his family any more sorrows. And so he had complied. He smiled at everyone, was nice and polite. Even in situations when he felt the exact opposite and it was really hard to keep his composure. He had told himself over and over again that this was his new self after he was “reformed”. And after some time, he had started to believe it. But he wasn’t happy with it. It was eating him up from the inside and at least his family had noticed, but they couldn’t do anything to help at the moment.

The blond stepped over to the window and leaned against the sill. It was snowing again outside and little ice flowers started to bloom at the edges of the window.

“I had to or else I would’ve been all alone.” Marik finally spoke. “The others are afraid of me. They say they trust me, but I’m not blind. Whenever I don’t exactly follow their expectation or ‘the norm’ or when I lose my temper, I can see that fear in their eyes. As if they’re afraid that I’d pull the rod from behind my back and stab them. I don’t want them to be afraid of me, I don’t want to worry them any further.” His fist clenched at his side.

Marik took a deep breath and continued to watch the falling snow outside. It was beautiful and calming. “I just don’t want to lose my family for a second time. They’re all I have.  And even if my so-called friends only like ‘Namu’, it’s still better than being all alone. So I’ve been trying to fit in, you know? Be normal. Don’t stick out too much. Lay low.”

“Is that why you weren’t wearing your flashy clothes and gold anymore? And there I was already wondering if you somehow spawned a decent fashion taste in the years I was gone.” Bakura’s lips curled up in a smug grin and he pointed at Marik’s gold trinkets. “Though, I noticed that you recently started to go back to your old style again. How come? Trying to impress me? I’m a thief and I like shiny things, but I’ll have you know that you don’t need them to attract my attention.”

Marik snorted and playfully batted the back of the other’s head. “Don’t be ridiculous, Bakura.” In fact, Bakura’s presence had reminded him of old times and how _good_ it had felt to dress up and how much he had actually missed it. He knew Bakura wouldn’t judge him for what he did or what he wore and that he accepted him as he was, even encouraged him with his occasional golden gifts. So Marik dared to be himself again around his friend, and he felt it was doing him really well. He hadn’t felt this good in years.

“Is that whole ‘be normal’ thing also why your apartment looks like shit?” Bakura raised an eyebrow and gestured around him.

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean, asshole? It’s a perfectly fine AND normal place.” Marik huffed and crossed his arms. Bakura had a point, though. The apartment wasn’t the best and Marik hadn’t really put lots of effort into the furnishing. Most of it was some second hand stuff that he had gathered over the years. Putting a lot of effort into the interior would’ve just been a waste of time as he originally hadn’t intended to stay at this place for so long. Being called out on it wasn’t really nice, though. Then again, Bakura wasn’t really known for being the nicest person on the planet.

Bakura let out a loud laugh. “Oh come on Marik, you and me, we both know it’s a hell hole.”

The blond glowered at him for a few seconds before a smirk crept its way on his face. “Yes, yes, it is.” He uncrossed his arms again and walked over to the couch. He sat down next to Bakura in tailor seat and stuffed a handful of Bakura’s potato chips into his mouth. “Ishizu made me donate all of my Ghoul money to charity, so I couldn’t really afford anything more to my taste.”

“ _All_ your Ghoul money?”

“Well.” Marik stretched the word and glanced over at his companion. “All she knows of.”

“You’re a little bastard, you know that?”Bakura slapped the other’s hand away when he attempted to steal more potato chips.

The blond just shrugged. “I didn’t really mind donating things to charity. I got a lot of shit to make up for after all. I just kept a small part of it as some kind of… insurance. It’s not like I can spend it anyways without my sister getting suspicious of where it comes from. That’s also why I can’t afford a better place than this.”

“You’re working your ass off at the museum. I’m sure you’re earning enough there?”

Marik tched and waved him off. “Work is just as much of a hell hole as this place. There’s nothing worse than all the paperwork and I by far don’t get paid as much as I should. But Ishizu was so happy when she had found a job for me and she was so proud when I accepted. The job was all her idea. I would’ve never applied there on my own. I’ve got enough of the tombs and ancient cultures, why would I ever want to continue with that?”

Bakura hummed in agreement. He lay down so his head was resting against Marik’s thigh and offered the last chips to him. It was unusual for him to come and initiate physical contact without any ulterior motive. The blond didn’t mind and just enjoyed having someone close for the moment. He declined the chips and absentmindedly ran his hand through Bakura’s silver locks. Neither of them said anything for a while and Marik almost thought the other one had fallen asleep until Bakura poked his cheek with his index finger. The blond batted the annoying finger away, making Bakura chuckle.

“What do you want to do instead, Marik?” Bakura laced his hands on his stomach and looked up at him with his ruby eyes. “It’s not too late to change things, you know. You could always apply for a new job or take some classes at college. I’m contributing to the rent now too, so you could cut some shifts at the museum and use them to study something that interests you.”

Marik had to ponder it for a moment. After Battle City, he had been so busy with just learning how to function properly that he had never really thought about _what_ exactly he wanted to do. “My siblings won’t be very happy to hear I want to quit the job, but I guess they’ll understand if I tell them I have an alternative. Could be worth a try, though... Have I already told that they’re coming over for a visit next week? They arrive on Thursday at Domino airport.”

Bakura did not seem all too pleased with that prospect. “They won’t be very happy to hear I’m back either.” He relaxed again when Marik continued to comb through his hair with his fingers. “Talking about family. Ryou and Kek asked if we wanted to come over to their place for Christmas dinner and some RPGs tonight. I already told them we’ll be there at six.”

Marik smiled warmly. Maybe this would be the first Christmas he’d enjoy. He never liked the festivities because they were too soon after his hated birthday. Besides, it wasn’t really part of their culture either. But perhaps this year it’d be different.

“FUCKING HELL, BAKURA! THAT’S ALREADY IN TWO HOURS!” Marik shouted and jumped up. Then he continued yelling at his companion for not telling earlier because now he had to hurry to get ready to go. He definitely did not spend the next two hours in the bathroom and they also definitely did not arrive at Ryou’s an hour too late because he couldn’t decide what to wear.

The evening was really nice with Ryou’s amazing food and the games they played. Ryou had even prepared a special side quest for their RPG. It ended with Marik’s and Bakura’s characters getting stuck under a mistletoe. Ryou grinned widely at them when he pointed at the real mistletoe that he had hung up over their usual seats in advance. The stupid brat had planned it all and set them a trap and they had walked right into it. Marik should probably thank him for that later.

 

\---

 

Bakura was lying on his back on the bed and had his head tilted to the right, watching his partner sleep peacefully. It was time to get up he told himself. Time to get up, get a shower and return to his own bed. But it was getting harder and harder to leave with each minute he stayed.

When they started this, he had thought their more than questionable ‘agreement’ to be nothing more than a physical thing, an outlet of some sorts to blow off some steam. Back then Bakura had just wanted to spare them a weird morning by running off right afterwards. After some time he ran off because he was scared. Their relationship had changed and he had been too afraid to admit that there was more to it. Or that he wanted more to it.

Bakura wasn’t quite sure when the change had started. They had reached a whole new level of intimacy now after Marik allowed Bakura to touch his back. Though maybe it had already started long before that and Bakura just hadn’t realized it.

Everyone he had loved had died on him. Without exception. The Gods had never meant it well with him and he was afraid that if he’d let himself get attached to someone ever again, the Gods would take that someone from him again. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing Marik, so he kept telling himself that as long as he denied his feelings for him everything would be fine.

Slowly he rose from the bed and staggered over to his own room. It was cold there as he had forgotten to close the window. “…”

 

\---

 

During the night, Marik felt the weight next to him on the bed shift again. He sleepily muttered his usual response of “You don’t have to go, you can just stay.” He already stopped counting the times he had already said that in vain. Yet he still hoped that Bakura would eventually listen and stay and he was still disappointed each time he felt Bakura’s comforting warmth next to him vanish again.

Though just as Marik almost drifted off to sleep again, he could hear the soft padding of bare feet returning and felt as something was dumped on him. His eyes fluttered open and he buried himself out of the extra pillow and duvet that he soon recognized to be Bakuras.

“You’re a damn blanket hog, you know that?” Bakura muttered as he arranged his own pillow next to Marik’s and crept back into bed with him.

 

\---

 

Marik stood in front of the gate at the airport and impatiently waited for his siblings to arrive. The huge screen at the wall showed that their flight had landed already twenty minutes ago, but as always finding the right luggage was taking up lots of time again. He smiled brightly at his brother and his sister when he saw them round the corner.

Both of his siblings hugged him as greeting, though whereas Rishid’s was a bear hug, Ishizu’s was more polite. Marik knew his sister loved him, but sometimes he wished she wouldn’t be so reserved. Perhaps then it would’ve been easier to open up to her in the past as well.

Rishid mussed up Marik’s hair and smiled warmly at him. “It is good to see you again, _habibi_.”

They exchanged some more greetings and smalltalk as they walked towards the exit. Both of his siblings were in a really good mood, but also a bit exhausted from the long trip. Since they hadn’t eaten anything decent yet, they stopped by a small restaurant right after dropping their luggage at the hotel.

While waiting for the food to arrive at the table, Ishizu led most of the conversation. She told of a new excavation site in Egypt and all the new information they could recover from it. Her excitement made Marik smile. However, he couldn’t quite share her enthusiasm.

“You know, Marik.” Ishizu said between some bites. “If you’d like to help, we always need good staff.”

Marik groaned inwardly. And there it was again. Ishizu had never liked the idea of him living so far away where she couldn’t keep an eye on him. Heck, she only allowed him to move to Japan because then Yugi and the gang could babysit him. Almost every time they met, she had tried to lure him back home. Marik had always tried to politely decline all her offers, but perhaps it was time to play with open cards. “That’s really nice of you to say, but I’m not exactly interested in any excavations. And truth to be told, I’m thinking about quitting the job at the museum as well.”

Ishizu almost choked on her drink and coughed. “What? Why?! The director told me you’re doing such a wonderful job! Why would you throw that away?”

The blond placed his cutlery down on his plate. “Because I don’t like it. It’s not what I want. I’d rather study engineering.”

Before his sister could open her mouth to protest, Rishid cut her off. “Have you applied to university yet? If you’re lucky you can still get a spot for the next summer term.”

Ishizu shot Rishid an angry glare. “Don’t encourage him! The job at the museum is safe and has a stable income. He’d be a fool to quit it.”

“And he just said it’s not what he wants. He’s old enough to decide for himself, Ishizu.”

“Uh, guys? I’m still sitting here and can hear you talking about me, so how about you talk _to_ me instead?” Marik raised an eyebrow at them. Their reactions didn’t really surprise him at all. Rishid would always support him, no matter what he did and he was more than thankful for that. His sister was just worried and he could understand that to some extend as well.

Ishizu sighed in defeat. “Yeah, you’re both right. Marik, if that’s what you really want, then we’ll support you. Just promise me to take good care of yourself, alright?” She shifted in her seat, visibly uncomfortable with the current topic. So she changed it. “You look good, Marik. A lot better than the last time we saw you. You look so happy and I see you’re also wearing your kohl and your jewellery again. I’m so glad you’re doing so well again. Did anything special happen?”

Marik blinked. He didn’t think he looked particularly good today to be honest. Had he really looked so shitty before that they already considered this an improvement? He pulled a grimace. He probably had. There had been a time where he had just stopped caring about everything. It had been worst in the year after the ceremonial duel and he had only recovered very slowly.

Rishid’s face split into a knowing grin. “Or rather _someone_ special happened?”

Marik felt his face heat up and he kicked his brother’s leg under the table. “Rishid!”

The older one just laughed. “Hit the nail right on its head, didn’t I? I’m also guessing that’s the reason why we have to stay at a hotel instead of your place this time, isn’t it?” It was more of a rhetorical question, really.

Ishizu clapped her hands together. “Oh, Marik, that’s wonderful! You have to introduce us at some point! I’m so glad you found someone who helped you out of your depression, Marik!”

Marik rolled his eyes. “You’re exaggerating. It wasn’t really a depression. I just didn’t feel so well.”

His sister patted his arm. “Don’t play it down, Marik. I know it was really hard for you to know that the Pharaoh was gone once and for all and that our purpose as tomb keepers was fulfilled as well. But it was hard for all of us, believe me.” 

Marik let out a dry, bitter laugh. “Honestly, I couldn’t care less about the Pharaoh. If anything, then it was freeing to have him gone. I was GLAD he was gone. I didn’t miss him one bit.” He knew he started a shitstorm with that, but it was something that was already long overdue. He had complied with his sister’s expectations for long enough, driven mostly by guilt for making her life so troublesome.

Surprise reflected in Ishizu’s eyes. “You don’t mean that. Not really, do you? Then you should’ve been happy. But you weren’t.”

Marik stared at her for a long while. She didn’t understand it. She didn’t understand anything. And it pissed him off. He slammed his flat hands on the table and pushed himself up. “Oh, _of course_ I must have felt like shit because the _glorious_ Pharaoh left. What other reason could there be. That’s again so typical for you. You, Yugi and his friends, you’re all the same. The _magnificent_ Pharaoh has left our plane, oh how shall we ever cope with that? Everyone has to lament the tragic departure of the Pharaoh who now sits in _Aeru_ and feasts with his family. And _of course_ everyone has to tell Yugi how sorry they are for his loss.”  His face turned into a pained expression. “But let me tell you one thing: Yugi wasn’t the only one who lost someone important. Bakura was killed and has anyone ever bothered to ask Ryou who shared headspace with him how he felt about it? Bakura had been my first real friend outside the tomb and has anyone ever asked me about how I felt when he was killed? NO! NEVER!”

People at the other tables started to stare at him after his sudden outburst, but Marik just shot them an intimidating glare and they went back to their own business. It was good to get these things off his heart.

“Each time, I tried to bring it up, you would always shut me down, telling me how great the Pharaoh’s victory over the evil thief was. So all I could do was to grief my friend in silence and bear with it alone. And I’m so done with this shit right now.” He grabbed his bag and stormed out of the restaurant. Tears prickled in the corner of his eyes from the emotional outburst.

Marik could hear Ishizu’s shouting something after him as he left her to process what had just been said. He darted down the street not really knowing where to go. In the end, he found himself sitting on a bench in the park. The tears that he had tried to hold back over so many years were now flowing freely.

The blond jumped when a big hand was placed on his arm. He recognized it to be Rishid’s and exhaled relieved. Quickly he tried his eyes on his sleeve.

His brother silently asked for permission to sit next to him. The blond just gave a nod in response. Rishid sat next to him for a while and just stared ahead.

“Aren’t you going to lecture me or something?” Marik asked as he leaned back and ran a hand through his blond hair.

“About what? About screaming at your sister in the middle of a restaurant? It wasn’t nice, but she needed that I think.”

“No, I mean about allying with the enemy.”

“If he’s your friend, he’s not your enemy, now is he?” Another moment of silence followed until Rishid picked up the conversation again. “So.” He started. “Since when is he back?”

“Bit more than half a year now.” It didn’t even surprise Marik anymore how well Rishid could read him. Nobody knew him as well as he did.

“And you’re happy with him?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’m happy for you.” Rishid got up from his seat and patted Marik’s arm again. “I’ll talk to Ishizu. You know how stubborn she can be.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mieeeh. When I wrote this chapter, I really liked it. Now after letting it rest for a while and reading over it again, I don't like it so much anymore XD I suck at writing arguments.  
> I do still like Rishid being all BrOdion though lol
> 
> Thanks a lot to Sita for beta'ing!


	7. Chapter 7

# Chapter 7

 

Bakura lay upside down on the couch with his head hanging over the edge as he watched Marik pace up and down the room like a tiger in a cage. “Stop the pacing, you’re making me nervous. She’s your sister she’ll eventually accept it as it is.”

Marik pulled on his hair. “You have no idea how HORRIBLE that went yesterday evening! It couldn’t have gone any worse, seriously! I mean I screamed at her in the middle of the damn restaurant!”

“Yes, and from what you told, she deserved it.”

The doorbell rang and both males gave it a suspicious look. “Did you order something, Bakura?”

Bakura shook his head. Marik sighed. He could already guess who it was and he had no idea how to act towards his siblings after yesterday’s disaster. While he was still pondering about whether he should even open the door or not, Bakura had already taken the decision away from him.

“HEY!” Marik yelled after him.

However, Bakura had already made a run towards the door and skilfully dodged all of Marik’s attempts to stop him. And just when the blond was about to grab Bakura and hold him back, Marik tripped over the carpet and found himself sprawled across the floor. By the time he had gotten up, he could already hear the lock of the front door opening.

 

\---

 

Marik’s words had hurt. But they had some truth behind them that Ishizu couldn’t deny. She and Rishid had had a long, serious talk the last night and she had come to the conclusion that she should apologize to her younger brother for being so ignorant towards his feelings. She as his sister should’ve known better.

It was around noon time when they got on their way to Marik’s place and so they decided to bring some lunch along as well. Ishizu furrowed her brows when Rishid ordered a fourth meal. “You don’t expect _him_ to actually be there, do you?”

Rishid shrugged. “I don’t know what to expect, but if he’s there it would be horribly rude not to give him something, wouldn’t it?”

Gritting her teeth, Ishizu agreed. Of course the Thief would be there too. After the revelations the day before, it was clear that he would be. Yet she hoped he was not and it didn’t really surprise her that he was the one to open the door.

“Well, well, look who we have here.” He leaned against the doorframe and pushed a stray strand of silver hair that had fallen out of his ponytail behind his ear. A devilish grin distorted the face that looked so much like Ryou’s. It surprised Ishizu he had come back looking like his former host. She would’ve expected him to have his old body back.

Ishizu cleared her throat and straightened up her position. “Uhm, hello. Is Marik there? I need to talk to him.”

Rishid held up four bags with takeout food. “We brought lunch too.”

“Oh, good! I’m starving!” The Thief exclaimed gleefully. He yelped as he was yanked away from the door (and the food) by his collar and Marik appeared in his stead. “Bakura, don’t you know any manners? At least let them in first.” The blond opened the door further for his siblings. “Please, come inside.”

The dark haired woman forced a smile on her lips and followed her brothers to the living room while the Thief trailed behind them. It bothered her that he wasn’t in her line of view, so she couldn’t keep an eye on him.

Marik offered a seat to her, but she declined and asked if they could have a word in private at first as she didn’t want any bad blood between them during lunch. Her brother sighed and took her to the kitchen. The talk that followed went surprisingly well for their standards. No yelling, no screaming and a lot of misunderstandings could be sorted out. It was a talk that had long been overdue and afterwards both of them felt a lot better.

When they returned to the living room, the Thief had already bribed Rishid with a can of beer and the sports channel in TV. To say that she didn’t feel at least a tiny bit betrayed by how easily her older brother accepted the Thief would’ve been a lie. But she had promised Marik and Rishid to give the Thief a chance as well and so she sat down with them for lunch. They had to warm up the food again though and Ishizu could hear her brother and the Thief bickering about the lack of meat as they worked in the kitchen.

Rishid nudged her with his elbow and chuckled lowly. “Don’t be so grim. He isn’t as bad as you think he is.” No, he was not, she thought. He was worse.

Ishizu took a deep breath and braced herself for the lunch they’d have together. It was awkward. She didn’t really find any good ice breakers and Thief unnerved her greatly. He was rude. They were talking in Japanese as he didn’t understand modern Arabic and not a single time she heard him use any honorific suffixes towards them. It didn’t slip her that Marik wouldn’t use any suffixes for him either. Not even a –kun like he usually did with Yugi and the rest.

While she had been lost in thoughts, the Thief and her brother had started another one of their petty little arguments. It ended with Marik having him in a headlock while the Thief struggled and yelled profanities at him. Seeing the Thief like that was oddly satisfying and a little chuckle escaped Ishizu’s lips. It lightened up the mood and picking up conversations was a bit easier afterwards when they moved from the dining table to the couch for tea. At least the thief sprawled out over the couch and claimed the entirety of it with her brother next to him while Ishizu herself took the armchair and Rishid sat on Marik’s big office chair.

While Marik and Rishid were talking about something else, Ishizu took her time to study her brother and the Thief together. Rishid had been right. Marik did look a lot happier and more energetic around him and his laugh was real.

When her gaze went over to the Thief, he stared back at her with piercing eyes. Slowly and without breaking eye contact, he let his hand wander underneath Marik’s shirt and up his back. It made Ishizu’s hair stand on all ends. How dare _he_ , the enemy of the Pharaoh, touch those sacred carvings? Besides Marik had never let anyone, not even Rishid, touch his back after the initiation ritual. The Thief’s lips pursed up in one more of his devilish grins. He was fully aware of it and he was making a statement right there. And the fact that her brother allowed him to do so without hesitation spoke for itself. Ishizu sighed in defeat. Like it or not, it seemed that she had to accept how things were from now on.

 

\---

 

“Bakura, that was a dick move.” Marik told the other one while they were cleaning the dishes. Their guests had left an hour ago.

Bakura just shrugged and grinned. “I was just marking my territory.”

“Then do that somehow else next time.” Marik regretted his words as soon as he saw Bakura’s amused face. With a deadpan face the blond lifted the knife he had been cleaning from the sink for Bakura to see. “I just want to let you know that I’m the one with the knife right now and I swear to the Gods, if you pee on me I’ll castrate you.”

Bakura’s hyena laughter filled the kitchen for a moment before he closed in on Marik and trailed a few kisses along his neck. “I was more thinking of a different kind of mark.”

Marik rolled his eyes and threw the kitchen towel over the other one's head before turning away. “No kisses for you until you apologize to her for your dumbass behaviour.”

“But she hates me.” Bakura whined as he used the towel to dry the dishes Marik handed him. A gloomy expression crossed his face. “No matter what I do, nothing would serve her right anyways...”

Marik raised an eyebrow at him. The bitter tone in which Bakura had said the last part made it seem more like he was afraid of trying and getting rejected by Marik’s family. Perhaps he just needed some small encouragement. “I don’t even think she hates you that much. I mean, she was even laughing a bit today, so it can’t have gone that bad. She just needs some time to adjust to the new situation.”

Bakura hummed in agreement as he took care of the rest of the dishes.  “I’ll try to be nicer next time. But I can’t promise anything.”

Much to Marik's surprise, Bakura actually did as he had been told and called Ishizu to apologize later that day.

 

\---

 

Bakura still lay awake until late in the night. No matter what he tried, sleep just wouldn’t find him.

Marik cooed as he snuggled up closer to Bakura in his sleep and Bakura let out a content sigh. He had been a fool for denying himself any kind of affection for so long and now he felt like he was starved for it. Gently he brushed some hair out of Mariks face and let his finger trail down his jaw line. The blond grumbled as he buried his face in the other one’s shirt.

They lay like this for a little longer until Marik started to toss around and whimper in his sleep again. He suffered from nightmares almost every night. Even if he often couldn’t even remember it, Bakura almost always woke and held him until he calmed down again. He also did so this time and patiently waited until he could feel how Marik’s racing heartbeat was slowing down again against his own chest. Marik clung to him as if their lives depended on it, refusing to let go. Bakura petted his head and ran his hand over his partner’s back until he stopped shaking. Whatever the nightmare had been, it had upset him more than usual.

Marik took some deep breaths and pushed himself away from Bakura’s chest. He cupped Bakura’s face with his hands, pulled it to his own and rested their foreheads together. “Ne, _habibi_. I love you.” He whispered before he stole a chaste kiss from Bakura’s lips.

Bakura stared at his partner. He wanted to say the same. Gods be damned, he wanted to. But the words got stuck in his throat as his old fears came back and his mouth ran dry. “Marik, I… I can’t say it.”

Marik opened his eyes again and they were filled with hurt. “Why not?” He demanded to know, but his voice was shaky.

Bakura took Marik’s hands in his own before the blond could pull them away and kissed his knuckles. Afraid to look into the other’s lilac eyes, he embraced him and buried his face in his chest. “I’m afraid the moment I say it the Gods will take you too, just like they did with the rest of my family. I don’t want to lose you too. I wouldn’t be able to bear it.”

“I’m not going to be taken away from you, silly.” Marik spoke softly as he petted his silver hair.

“I know and it’s ridiculous, but I’m still afraid to say it.”

“Then I’ll wait for you to say it until you’re ready.”

“What if I never will?”

“I’ll know even if you don’t speak it out loud.”

“Thank you…”

 

\---

 

“No,  no,  no! Keep your eyes closed, Marik, you’re not supposed to look yet!” Bakura exclaimed as he led Marik through the corridor. He let go of Marik’s hand and the click of a lock was heard.

Marik huffed impatiently and crossed his arms. “And how long do you want me to run around blind?”

“Marik, I played fair and didn’t even suggest you to wear a dark blindfold because I know it makes you feel uncomfortable. So at least be fair as well and don’t look until I tell you to.”

Marik felt a tug on his arm. He uncrossed his arms and intertwined his fingers with Bakura’s as the other one took the lead again. They soon came to another halt.

“Aaaany moment now. Just give me a sec.”

The sound of curtains being drawn was heard and Marik felt Bakura’s warmth next to him again. The other one placed an arm around his shoulders. “Now you can open your eyes.”

Marik’s eyes fluttered open and he needed to blink a few times to adjust to the lights. Then he gasped. The view he was greeted with was amazing. They were on the top floor of quite a high building. The whole Eastern side of the room, meaning the one they were facing right now, was a single huge window. Through the glass front he could see the busy city with millions of lights, big and small, illuminating the ground below while the stars lit up the sky above.

Marik stepped closer to the glass and leaned against it with his hands and forehead so he could take it all in. “This is beautiful.” He said, still astonished by the scenery. From this spot, he was able to see the futuristic looking Kaiba Coorp. headquarters, the old fashioned museum, the little park he liked to go to, the shopping street that was still busy despite the late hour, and simply everything.

“So, do you like it?”  A pleasant shiver ran down Marik’s spine when he felt a soft kiss on his shoulder next to the tip of the wing scar and Bakura’s arms snaking around his waist from behind.

“I love it.” Marik spoke, not being able to tear his gaze away from window.

“That’s what I thought.” Bakura hummed. He let go of his partner.

Marik gave a small whimper when Bakura’s warmth disappeared and turned to face the middle of the room as well. They were in a classy living room that connected to an open kitchen with a bar. The furnishing was modern and elegant. The surfaces were polished and the big leather couch in the middle of the room looked comfortable and inviting. It reminded Marik a bit of the luxurious hotel rooms he used to stay in during his uh… _rebellious_ phase. He liked it.

“Whose place is this?” 

Bakura’s lips curled up in a wide grin as he reached for the piece of paper on a side table. He proudly held it towards the blond. “Ours if we sign right here.”

Marik’s eyes went wide as he stared at the contract in disbelief. “You’re kidding, right?”

Bakura’s expression turned from his usual harsh grin into a soft smile, a smile that he would only ever show to Marik and to no one else. He cupped the blond’s face with his hands and pulled him downwards so he could place a kiss on his forehead.

“Marik” He said before turning both of them back to the window. “The old apartment is dull and dark. It’s not a place for you to be. So I started looking for new places.” He leaned his head against the side of Marik’s shoulder and watched the busy streets of the town. “Then I found this place and knew it’d be the right one. I want you to be able to wake up to see the sunrise and the open sky. I want you to see the stars and the moon every night and I want you to see a city below instead of one above.”    

"And if dark clouds cover everything and block the view, then it won't matter because you'll be my silver moon and I'll be your golden sun." Marik continued Bakura's train of thoughts. Tears started to prickle in Marik’s eyes, but he blinked them away. Bakura had been wrong when he said he couldn’t tell him he loved him. He couldn’t have said it more clearly than now. Marik pressed a kiss on Bakura’s temple. “Thank you.” He continued to plaster Bakura’s whole face with kisses while expressing his gratitude over and over again. Bakura chuckled lowly and leaned into his touch. Their foreheads touched and they enjoyed the silent moment for a while.

Then Marik’s face fell as he straightened up again. “But Bakura, we can’t afford anything like this.” He gestured towards the fancy apartment.

“Oh, yes, we can. I was able to negotiate the price to be reasonable.” Bakura laughed and winked at him. “You know, it’s always good if you have contacts and know someone who knows someone who knows someone.”

“… In other words you asked Ryou, Ryou asked Yugi and Yugi asked Kaiba.”

“Precisely.”

“When can we move in?”              

                             

\---

 

Bakura set down the last one of their moving boxes. He wiped some sweat from his brow with his sleeve, looked around in their new home and smiled contently. Not just their new apartment, but _their_ new _home_. He could still remember the first time he thought of their old apartment as _theirs_ , but the place had been so dull that it had never truly felt like a home. It seemed like so much time had already passed since that point, but it truly hadn’t. Since then things had gone so fast. And at suddenly it wasn’t anymore “Do you need anything from the store”, but a “Do _we_ need anything from the store”, and then it wasn’t Marik’s bed anymore, it was _their_ bed. And most importantly now this was _their_ new _home_ where they would build up _their_ new future _together_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, almost finished with this story! The next chapter will be the epilogue. 
> 
> I'm feeling really bad for making Ishizu seem like a bitch. It almost seems like I hate her, but I really do like her XD
> 
> Also, I was feeling so horribly bad after writing the scene in the bed that I just had to add the appartment scene with lots of fluff to make up for it. And then the fluff started to sound like wedding vows lol
> 
> Thanks again to Sita for beta'ing!


	8. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't be confused, there are some bigger time jumps

# Epilogue

 

Marik lay on his side on the couch and watched how the light of the sun bounced off his golden twin bracelets. He could still remember the time he got them as if it was yesterday, even though over eleven years had passed by now since that day. Almost as much time had passed since he had lend one of them to Bakura as lucky charm and six years since Bakura had returned it to him again. A smirk found its way to his face and he knew just what to do.

 

\---

 

_Marik almost got a heart attack when Bakura suddenly stood in front of the door of his apartment in Luxor. He was furious with him, blamed him for abandoning him in the shadows and for handing the ring over to the pharaoh. So to make up for it, he demanded that Marik helped him prepare his new schemes while the pharaoh and the nerd herd were busy in America. The blond had been reluctant to help at first. After all he was ‘reformed’ now and his family which he was just freshly reunited with would definitely not approve. But he did feel guilty for abandoning Bakura. He tried to explain to the other one that he would’ve taken him out of the shadows as well if he had been able to. But as his dark half had brought himself back, he simply hadn’t known how to. And when it came to handing the items over to the pharaoh, he hadn’t had a choice either._

_“Bullshit.” Bakura growled at him. “You always have a choice. So here’s one to make now. Are you going to help me now or not? You still owe me big time, you know.”_

_And that was how they started to work together the second time. Marik rented a hotel suite far away from his own home, so his siblings wouldn’t accidentally run across the Spirit of the Ring. From there on, they organized their plans and schemes until one day Bakura had requested they drive out into the desert. Marik didn’t really know what to expect, but he readied his motorbike anyways and they took off. Bakura yelled at him and clung to him throughout the whole drive as Marik weaved through the busy city traffic with a speed that was probably way too high. Once they left town, he seemed to have cooled down a little bit and the closer they got to their destination the quieter Bakura got. He’d only occasionally point into the direction they were supposed to go. Their journey ended between some big sand dunes._

_“Where are we?” Marik took his helmet off and glanced around. “There’s nothing here except for sand and stones.”_

_Bakura grumbled something as he fled from the death machine called motorbike. “That’s what you think. But if you just listen closely enough, you can hear them.”_

_Confused Marik scratched his head. “Hear what?”_

_Bakura didn’t answer and instead just gestured to follow him. He led them through the dunes and stopped in front of a ruin that was almost completely covered in sand. “The main ruins are probably guarded, so we’ll have to get in through one of the underground tunnels.” He said as he brushed sand away from the stones and started to dig until an opening leading downwards was revealed._

_Marik froze on the spot and stared at the tunnel. “I’m not going down there. I hate the dark.” He hadn’t told Bakura much about his past. The panic swinging in his voice seemed to be enough to make the other one understand that he would not under any circumstances enter these tunnels, though. Marik expected the spirit to laugh at him, to taunt him for being a coward, but to his surprise he did none of that._

_Bakura stared at him with a blank face for a few seconds before he spoke again. “I understand. You got your package to carry and I got mine… Are you going to be ok waiting here then?”_

_“Yes, just hurry up and get your stuff done.” Marik rubbed his arm. Something about this place felt off and its aura made his hair stand on its ends._

_“Don’t get eaten by the ghosts.” Bakura smirked at him before he disappeared within the tunnels._

_Marik snorted at Bakura’s comment and sat down on a big rock nearby. Warily he eyed his surroundings, trying to figure out what was wrong with this place. The sun was slowly setting and a chill ran down his spine. And that’s when he heard the first wail. Startled, he jumped up from his seat and looked around for the source of the noise. A breeze of cold air brushed by him and it felt like the cold was biting into his arm. Marik hissed as he pulled his arm away quickly. More wailing noises joined the first one and if he squinted his eyes, he thought he was able to see the air around him distorting into pain filled faces crying for revenge._

_The blond gasped in shock and stumbled a few steps backwards, almost falling over the stone he had sat on before. He had thought of Bakura’s talk about wailing ghosts as nothing more than a mere joke to upset him, but slowly he started to think otherwise._

_More ghosts kept appearing. They were raging around him, screaming at him, wanting the intruder to be gone from their sacred place. Marik, too, wanted nothing more than to leave this place and get far, far away from it. But Bakura still wasn’t back yet and Marik wasn’t going to abandon him again. He called out for his friend, hoping that Bakura would hear it and return soon._

_Calling out Bakura’s name seemed to get the spirits even more agitated than they had already been before. Howling and screaming they swirled around him. Marik clapped his hands over his ears and wondered how Bakura had been able to stand the ghosts before as he had clearly been aware of them already when they arrived at this place. Desperately Marik jumped over to the underground entrance and called Bakura again, though he still got no response._

_The ghosts were still swirling around him, though by now their hostile attitude changed to a more curious mood. Some of them floated to the underground entrance and stared inside before rounding Marik again._

_The blond started to talk in the hopes to sooth the spirits around him somehow. Their mood had changed when he mentioned Bakura, so he decided to start from there. “Bakura’s in there. I’m just waiting here until he comes back, ok? No harm done, I’m just waiting for my friend, so please calm down.”_

_It seemed to work as some of the ghosts went back to stare at the entrance again before returning to him. This time, they kept their distance and it was their turn to eye him warily. Not knowing what else to do, Marik continued talking and talking. He told about how he had met Bakura and what happened from there. Though, once he mentioned the pharaoh the wailing started again and he decided better not to speak of him again. When he didn’t know what to say anymore, he tried to ask the spirits some simple yes or no questions and figured out their answers by their reactions. Marik didn’t know how long he was speaking to them, but at some point it had already gotten dark and the stars illuminated the sky._

_A loud clattering sound echoed through the dunes and Marik’s head shot around to the ruins again. Bakura had returned, his steps so silent that the blond hadn’t even heard him. But now he was standing there with his eyes wide in disbelief while the moon bathed him in etheral light and made his hair glisten like pure silver. For a moment Bakura, too, looked like one of the ghosts. The bag of treasures that he had been holding had fallen to the ground and the gold spilled out of it._

_“Oh hey, you’re back!” Marik exclaimed cheerfully._

_The ghost that had been resting on his shoulder floated to Bakura who just lifted a hand to brush through it in a silent greeting. “I’ve never seen them so peaceful.” He said totally perplexed as he stared at the spirit._

_Marik got up from the spot where he had been sitting causing the spirits to swarm out and float all over the place again. “They were in a really bad mood, you know. But I think they’re just worried for you.”_

_Bakura nodded slowly and continued to hold out his hand for that one spirit that seemed to have found a liking on floating through it. He gave it a bittersweet smile before he tore himself away from it. “It’s time to go.”_

_Together they collected the treasures that had spilled out of the bag and walked back to the motorbike. As soon as they left the ruins, the ghosts started to wail again. Only one of them followed them all the way to their vehicle and stared expectantly at them._

_Unsure Marik looked over to his companion. “What does it want?”_

_“You forgot to say goodbye.” Bakura stated as if it was the most obvious thing ever. He rolled his eyes when he saw Marik’s confused face. “There. Like this.” He said and took Marik’s hand to hold it up towards the ghost that brushed through it happily and disappeared back to the ruins. For a moment, Marik looked at their hands before he pulled his away. He was happy that his complexion and the darkness of the night hid the blush on his cheeks._

_He turned around to load the treasures onto the motorbike and fasten it, so it wouldn’t fall off. “Who was that?” He asked once he was done and climbed onto the bike._

_The Spirit of the Ring stayed silent and at first he thought he wasn’t going to answer his question anymore. After getting onto the bike as well, Bakura hesitated. “… my mother.” His voice was only a whisper as he put the helmet on to hide his face._

_The drive back to the hotel had been quiet as neither of them was in the mood for a conversation. Back in the hotel room, Bakura poured his treasures onto the floor and started to sort through them._

_“What the hell is all this and where the hell did you get all of this from?” Marik asked and picked at some of the trinkets. He recognized some of the sigils engraved in them. They were from different dynasties, some of them ancient and others really really ancient. They must’ve once belonged to important personalities._

_“It’s mine. I stole it fair and square back in the old days. No one was better at robbing tombs than I was.” Bakura smirked. He sounded proud. “I’m surprised no one has found it in all those years and they’re still in astonishing good shape. I wouldn’t have thought that. If you see something you like, keep it. I’ll sell the rest of that on the black market. It should bring enough money to pay the flight tickets to Japan and back again and also the expenses for the final game.”_

_Marik didn’t really like the thought of Bakura robbing tombs to obtain all these goods. He had been raised as tomb keeper after all, even if he never liked it. Though, the jewellery was beautiful and to be honest he had never been one to turn away from some nice bling. So he couldn’t help but try a pair of twin bracelets on and stare in awe at their beauty. Bakura took that as a sign that he wanted to keep those and then it would’ve been too rude to decline his gift. Woops. The bracelets became his favorites and he almost wore them every day, even making up a poor excuse of where he got them form for his siblings._

_Meanwhile, Bakura had indeed sold the rest of the treasures and booked his flights. But it would still take several weeks until his departure. So they spent the rest of the money for the materials for the final RPG and after the preparations for that were finished also for their leisure._

_When the time came for Bakura to leave, Marik returned one of the bracelets to him and made him promise to bring it back. Though, the other one had already forgotten that the bracelets had been a gift from him and didn’t even recognize it anymore._

_\---_

Bakura was nervously shifting his weight from one leg towards the other while watching how Marik prepared their breakfast.

Marik glanced at him over his shoulder. “What’s the matter?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Marik shovelled the eggs onto their plates and set them down on the table. “I can clearly see you got a problem with something. So spit it out already and stop sneaking around me all the time.”

Bakura crossed his arms, leaned against the counter and grumbled something. 

Marik groaned annoyed and rolled his eyes. “What was that? I can’t understand a word you say.”

“You’re not wearing them anymore.” Bakura bit his lip and avoided to look into Marik’s face. “The bracelets I mean. You’re always wearing them, but not anymore. Why?”

Surprised Marik raised an eyebrow. It had just been a day since he stopped wearing them and Bakura had already picked up on it. Not only had he already picked up on it, but he already thought it worth mentioning. That was faster than he had expected.

“Does it bother you?” Marik asked, trying to let his voice sound as indifferent as possible while he was smirking inwardly as his plan came to fruition.

Bakura scowled at him before eyeing him suspiciously. “What if it does?”

The blond watched him intensively and leaned against the counter opposite to his partner, breakfast forgotten. “Why does it bother you?”

Bakura complained that Marik should stop answering his questions with more questions. He gave up though when he spotted the playful spark in Marik’s eye. The blond would definitely stay stubborn until he got the answers he wanted to hear.

Again Bakura shifted nervously and looked away. “Okay okay, fine. I… I don’t know.”

“That’s not true. We both know that you know, so just say it.” Marik watched him with a triumphant grin.

“FINE FINE, Gods, you are annoying.” Bakura threw his hands into the air. “I kinda thought they… you know… meant something because they’re… you got them from me and you said they’re our, well, your lucky charm and so on. Whatever. This is stupid. Forget about it.”

Marik chuckled to himself about how easy it had been to get that confession out of Bakura. He would’ve never imagined that the other one would admit it that easily. If you had asked him a few years ago, he would’ve even thought of it as impossible.

“Nonono, wait!” He called out as he noticed that his partner was blushing madly and thinking that he was being made fun of. He threw his arms around the other one from behind before he could storm out of the kitchen. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at you, _habibi_.” He nuzzled his neck and kissed his cheek as an apology. “Don’t worry about the bracelets. They were worn out and the clamps were getting too loose, so I brought them to the jeweller to be fixed and polished, okay? I’ll pick them up again on Monday if that calms you.” He didn’t mention that he also got one of them newly alloyed and both of them engraved.

 

\---

 

Ishizu looked out of the window while waiting for the tea water to boil. They’d have coffee and tea with the family again this afternoon. Rishid and his wife were already there taking care of the pastries and setting up the table. Ishizu’s own husband was in the garden with the kids. Kek and Ryou had arrived just a moment before. It had taken years until Ishizu and Rishid had been able to accept Kek as their brother as well. It hadn’t always been easy since then and Ishizu was happy Ryou kept coming along as he seemed to be the only person who could reason with Kek when he got mad and calm him down. Ishizu appreciated his good influence on him.

Only Marik was missing and as she knew her brother, he’d likely bring that annoying Spirit along with him _again_ to their family gathering. Well, he was no longer a spirit. He was human once more, but that didn’t really stop her from not liking him at all. He had been a threat to the pharaoh and even if he was no longer dangerous without the millennium ring, she never got to warm up with him. His rude, direct behaviour just didn’t sit well with her and there had been more than one argument about it. In the end, she always put up with him again as it meant a lot to Marik.

She never understood what her brother saw in him or why he always insisted on bringing him along. Not until she noticed their matching bracelets that is. And then she knew. Marik’s silver and Bakura’s gold.

   

(uncropped version [here](https://shadow-chan93.tumblr.com/post/169856801837/i-was-too-impatient-and-broke-with-my-usual))

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It only took me 8 chapters/ over 24K words to get to the point LOL  
> Uncropped version of the Silver and Gold picture can be found on my tumblr.
> 
> I'm kinda sad the story is already over. It was huge fun to write and I was amazed by all the wonderful feedback! Thank you very much for reading and commenting! Also a huge thanks again to Sita for beta'ing my stuff and for hosting the Dirty Santa Event!

**Author's Note:**

> So, that was the first chapter :)  
> Thanks a lot to Sitabethel for beta'ing!


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